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eNewsletter – published December 11, 2017

Sad result

It is with profound sadness that PARC must announce that it has lost its appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This is the end of PARC’s legal attempt to fight the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. Unfortunately, this country has entered a time when our government can ignore its own laws and get away with it – even be encouraged to do so. The laws were made to protect the people from just this kind of action. So now the people get shafted.

PARC is glad to have fought the good fight. The PARC Board wants to thank each of you who have been a faithful supporter throughout the fight.

PARC President Pat Lawlis said, "I think I now have a better understanding of how every Native American tribe in this country has felt when our government has broken its treaty with them. This is a breech of faith in the rule of law."

One more thing

Now we must ask one more thing. We have a few bills to clean up, and we are left with owing our attorney Howard Shanker over $200K of legitimate legal expenses. We cannot begin to pay him all of that, but can you see it in your heart to show your appreciation for all his good work one more time with a donation?

eNewsletter – published September 18, 2017

Reminder of the specifics for oral arguments

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has set October 19, 2017 as the date for the oral arguments in the case for PARC (Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children) and GRIC (Gila River Indian Community) against ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) and the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration). The hearing will be held at 9:00 AM at the James R. Browning Courthouse, 95 Seventh Street, San Francisco CA 94103.

Each side will have approximately 20 minutes to present its arguments. The final ruling probably will come out a few weeks after the hearing. Hopefully, this case will be settled before the end of the year.

PARC injunction motion once again denied

In the last newsletter, in which PARC announced that it had filed another injunction motion, PARC said, “It remains to be seen whether the Court believes the foothills are worth saving.” Simply put, the Court did nothing to save the foothills.

The Court document said nothing more than “Injunction denied.” Best guess is that the Court is interested only in preserving public lands such as parks and preserves. So while it made sure that ADOT will not touch South Mountain Park and Preserve until at least mid-2018, the lands next to Pecos Road are another matter. Residents of Ahwatukee Foothills can be passionate about the foothills because these foothills, an integral part South Mountain, are a major reason people move to Ahwatukee Foothills. The Court has a different perspective.

The Court in San Francisco makes a decision based on what both sides tell it. In their brief to the Court, ADOT emphasized that the foothills next to Pecos Road are “largely disturbed” and close to residences. PARC emphasized that though the foothills were disturbed when Pecos Road was put in originally, the parts that remain are largely undisturbed except for the destruction ADOT is currently causing. Also, the foothills cannot be recreated once PARC wins the lawsuit.

The PARC arguments fell on deaf ears. Evidently, land next to an existing road can be ravished at will as long as it is not part of a park.

The court decision is disappointing. It has had the effect that ADOT desired – residents have become even more convinced that the freeway is a done deal. Still, this fight is not over. The Court has not yet considered the actual points of the lawsuit. Almost every one of these points is supported in the PARC brief by a precedent from the Ninth Circuit. More than anything else, the Court pays attention to its own precedents. While we can never be positive of the outcome of a lawsuit until the Court rules, PARC is in an excellent position in this one.

After all the destruction ADOT has already done, does it matter if PARC wins? Of course, it does! Most importantly, South Mountain will be saved, children will be saved from damaging air pollution, and hazardous materials will not endanger our neighborhoods. As for Pecos Road, it can be rebuilt. Unfortunately, we just cannot get back the destroyed homes and flattened foothills.

eNewsletter – published August 15, 2017

Finally a date for oral arguments

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has finally set October 19, 2017 as the date for the oral arguments in the case for PARC (Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children) and GRIC (Gila River Indian Community) against ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) and the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration). The hearing will be held at 9:00 AM at the James R. Browning Courthouse, 95 Seventh Street, San Francisco CA 94103.

Each side will have approximately 20 minutes to present its arguments. The final ruling probably will come out a few weeks after the hearing. Hopefully, this case will be settled before the end of the year.

PARC filed another injunction motion

With the ADOT contractor, Connect 202 Partners (C202P), ready to start blasting the foothills next to Pecos Road at any time, PARC has filed another injunction motion with the 9th Circuit requesting that all work be stopped until after the ruling from the Court. The motion points out that blasting the foothills between 24th Street and Desert Foothills Parkway would create irreparable harm to the environment. While a road such as Pecos Road can be reconstructed, the foothills cannot be replaced after PARC and GRIC win the suit.

PARC was denied an injunction from the 9th Circuit originally because ADOT had promised to avoid blasting South Mountain until at least mid-2018, thus avoiding irreparable harm until after the case is decided. When C202P started planning to blast the mountain’s foothills, PARC made a formal request to C202P to reschedule the blasting until after the pending appeal has been settled. C202P refused. So now PARC is asking the Court to stop all construction until the case has been settled. It remains to be seen whether the Court believes the foothills are worth saving.

ADOT continues to waste taxpayer dollars

PARC has known that ADOT is wasting millions of dollars on a California law firm for the last couple of years. In spite of the fact that government attorneys are working the lawsuit for both the state (for ADOT) and the federal government (for the FHWA), ADOT continues to use the CA attorneys at taxpayers’ expense.

As a result of a recent Freedom of Information Act request, PARC has determined that ADOT is now racing to spend as much as possible as fast as possible. C202P started billing ADOT in February of this year toward their $917 Million contract to construct the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF). As of July, C202P has already billed $250 Million toward the contract. So much for Arizona having a responsible fiscal policy. It appears that once PARC and GRIC win this case and ADOT is required to tear down what has already been built, ADOT will have wasted at least half a billion taxpayer dollars.

eNewsletter – published June 19, 2017

Latest word from the Ninth Circuit

Last Saturday (curiously), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit released information about the oral arguments for our case. A part of the text is the following:
"This case is being considered for the October 2017 San Francisco oral argument calendar. The exact date of your oral argument has not been determined at this time.

Also included was the statement, "Your case will be assigned to a calendar approximately 10 weeks before the scheduled oral argument date."

While the good news is that the Court is finally getting around to doing something about scheduling our case, the bad news is that they are in no hurry to do it. It appears from this information that sometime around the end of July the oral arguments will be scheduled on the October docket. Without any further delays, it appears that the case could be settled before the end of the year.

What we know

Without a doubt, the most frustrating part of having to wait for this case to be determined is that we have no control over what ADOT and its contractor Connect 202 Partners are doing. What we do know is the following:

ADOT has promised the Court that the center section of the freeway, the part that would cut through 3 ridges of South Mountain, will not be touched until at least mid-2018. Even with the current delays, the case will be settled before then.

The C202P contractor is being very careless in its work. Noises and lights are harassing homeowners at all hours of the day and night. Homes are shaking from work a little too close for comfort (perhaps illegally), and it appears that damage has been done to some structures.

C202P has responded to concerns about private property structural damage by offering free residential structure condition surveys to all residences within ½ mile of upcoming controlled rock blasting. PARC encourages residents to accept the free survey, even if an outside firm also conducts a survey of the residence. The free survey would provide one way to establish a "before" condition that can be compared with the "after" condition if the residence sustains damage during blasting or any other contractor activity. It would also be a good idea for the homeowner to accompany the inspector and record the inspection and the inspector’s comments. Once the inspection is completed, if not satisfied with what has already been documented, the resident should do his or her own further pictorial and/or video documentation.

The rock blasting that is expected for this summer would be irreparably destroying the foothills on the north side of Pecos Road. PARC is collecting information at this time for a new injunction request to the Court to stop this work. ADOT is becoming concerned enough about the injunction threat that they are now saying they are reconsidering whether to do the blasting or not. Do not be fooled by ADOT’s propaganda. This is a ploy to try to make it hard for PARC to prepare a definitive case about the destruction of the foothills. If by chance ADOT were to decide not to blast the foothills, it just means that they will attempt to bulldoze them instead. PARC continues to try to stop the contractor until after the case is settled, as should have occurred at the beginning.

C202P has already created much damage to the area within the freeway right-of-way. Homes have been destroyed, Pecos Road is in the process of being destroyed, plants (particularly many trees) and animals have been disturbed or destroyed for no good reason, and residents are suffering for it. Greatly increased scorpion activity has been reported in areas near the right-of-way, and concern about Valley Fever is legitimate. Additional problems will continue to arise, and it will be difficult to make ADOT or C202P legally responsible for the damage they are causing.

Once PARC wins the lawsuit, ADOT will be required to "undo" the damage they have done. Truly, some of it cannot be undone. One good thing, however, is that ADOT should be required to tear down all the bridge structures they have built and to rebuild Pecos Road. That would give Ahwatukee a "new" Pecos Road, and perhaps the current "interim road" can be kept as a multi-use path.

This case will be settled at the 9th Circuit. The only appeal from a circuit court is to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will not hear this case because it is about well-settled law.

Thanks for your continued support

PARC appreciates all the continued support from the Ahwatukee community, as well as valley and state residents. It can be depressing to watch and experience the destruction of Pecos Road. Our community is in turmoil and it has been made much less safe. Nevertheless, if the public does not act as a watchdog, our government tends to let power "go to its head" and government gets out of control. ADOT has never been reined in before, and it shows. PARC is proud to lead the current effort to force ADOT to follow the law.

eNewsletter – published April 30, 2017

Successful fundraiser to send Attorney Howard Shanker to San Francisco

The Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC) initiated this fundraiser to pay Howard’s way to argue our case at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The goal was to raise $6000. We are pleased to announce that the fundraiser actually brought in over $8500!

Thanks to everyone who responded so generously to this fundraising appeal! A special thanks goes to the PMPC for initiating the fundraiser and providing the publicity to get it moving. Another special thanks goes to Joe Rao, who provided a Facebook challenge to donors. This challenge was at least partly responsible for the wonderful donor response. Joe also provided a prize to one of the donors. In a random drawing, Jeff Schenk was the lucky recipient of 2 tickets to the Chicago and Doobie Brothers concert at the Ak-Chin Pavilion on Sunday, June 11th.

The fight continues

Since the formation of PARC in 2006, Howard has said that we will win this suit in the 9th Circuit. We have already seen the bias of the Arizona District Court, essentially giving the government the discretion to do as they please, regardless of the law. We have also seen that the 9th Circuit is a court that pays attention to the law. Many legal precedents for this type of case have been established at the 9th Circuit, and the Court pays particular attention to its own precedents.

To be able to continue the destruction of Pecos Road, ADOT had to promise the Court that it would not touch South Mountain (Center Segment on their freeway figure) until this case is resolved. In spite of ADOT’s attempt to do as much work as possible before the Court’s decision, precedents have shown that the Court will order ADOT to undo the work it has done after PARC wins.

With the current danger of the interim Pecos Road, PARC encourages care to all who continue to use it. Again, once we win our case, ADOT should be required to restore Pecos Road to a nice, 4-lane road with wide median that serves the Ahwatukee community.

Many Ahwatukee residents are rightly disturbed by the news that ADOT’s contractor, Connect 202 Partners, plans to begin blasting the foothills near Pecos Road this summer. Destroying foothills is irreparable harm as much as destroying the main part of South Mountain. PARC is working to prevent this blasting until after the case is resolved.

Unfortunately, the lawsuit continues to be delayed. PARC has filed its final brief, but the GRIC has until the end of May to file theirs. Once that brief is filed, we expect that the court will set a date for oral arguments. That date will probably be sometime this summer. Allow another couple of months for the court to produce a ruling. Hopefully, we will get a resolution before the end of this year!

eNewsletter – published March 15, 2017

Fundraiser to send Attorney Howard Shanker to San Francisco

Attorney Howard Shanker has provided hundreds of hours of pro bono work toward moving the PARC etal lawsuit forward to stop the construction of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. The oral arguments at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco will provide the last and by far the best chance for stopping the freeway. The Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC) has initiated this fundraiser to pay Howard’s way to argue this case at the 9th Circuit.

Since the formation of PARC in 2006, Howard has said that we will win this suit in the 9th Circuit. We have already seen the bias of the Arizona District Court, essentially giving the government the discretion to do as they please, regardless of the law. We have also seen that the 9th Circuit is a court that pays attention to the law. Many legal precedents for this type of case have been established at the 9th Circuit, and the Court pays particular attention to its own precedents.

To be able to continue the destruction of Pecos Road, ADOT had to promise the Court that it would not touch South Mountain (Center Segment on the figure) until this case is resolved. In spite of ADOT’s attempt to do as much work as possible before the Court’s decision, precedents have shown that the Court will order ADOT to undo the work it has done after PARC wins.

Some people have wondered if the case could be appealed to the Supreme Court from the 9th Circuit. The answer is no. This case involves well-established law, so the Supreme Court will not take it. The 9th Circuit ruling will be final.

Donate to the campaign by:
Clicking a "Donate" button on this newsletter or going to www.gofundme.com/n0moy0 to donate by credit card

OR

Sending a check to PARC, P.O. Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455

Thank you for your continued support!

Club West HOA vote comes up short

At the Club West HOA annual meeting on March 2, 2017 the residents voted 222-233 against supporting PARC with a $25,000 donation. Had PARC not waged a mailbox campaign to garner support the result probably would have been a much larger defeat. An 11-vote defeat, however, was extremely disappointing.

eNewsletter – published February 25, 2017

Important Club West HOA vote

On Thursday, March 2, 2017, Club West HOA will have its annual meeting. At that time, votes will be tabulated on the proposition for donating $25,000 to PARC for this year. If you are a resident of Club West, please either send in your vote supporting PARC or else attend the annual meeting to cast your vote to fund PARC. This is a very important part of PARC’s fundraising, and we ask for your vote for the following reasons:

It costs you nothing!

PARC’s lawsuit to stop the freeway, based on numerous violations of federal laws, is extremely strong

PARC has worked for 10 years to get the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals where federal laws are followed

The Arizona judge ignored federal laws

Pecos Road can be fixed, but PARC forced ADOT to leave South Mountain alone until the case is resolved

PARC continues to work for the benefit of all Ahwatukee residents. PARC asks for your continued support.

See you at Transportation Day

PARC will once again have a booth at Transportation Day at God’s Garden Preschool, 1401 E. Liberty Lane, from 9am – 1pm on Saturday, February 25, 2017. If you attend, stop by and see us. We will have several updated handouts, including the table of court actions that can be found at the end of this newsletter.

If you have not yet filed your taxes and you think H&R Block could help, pick up one of our PARC flyers for new customers of H&R Block. PARC will receive $20 for each new customer, but only if you take the PARC flyer with you.

Patience is a virtue

When you were a child and found it hard to wait for something you really wanted, you probably heard, "patience is a virtue." Things are not much different now that you are an adult, except that we now live at a time when instant gratification has become the expected norm. Instant gratification, however, is still more myth than reality.

When working online, you can get instant responses to your inputs and inquiries. The realization of most transactions, however, still takes time. Sometimes it takes so much time that you lose interest. That is what has happened with most people’s interest in the fight against the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF).

Government agencies and big businesses count on people losing interest after a time in fighting to correct problems. Much to ADOT’s chagrin, however, PARC has not lost interest in fighting against the SMF. In fact, we have finally reached the goal we have been pursuing for 10 years. From the very beginning, PARC expected that the only way to stop the SMF was by winning an appeal at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Everything is stacked against a grass-roots organization fighting the government until getting to the appeal, and winning an appeal requires a lot of prior work in building a strong case.

Building a strong case is exactly what PARC has done. Starting with the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, PARC provided voluminous expert responses detailing the problems with the SMF planning. All written responses ended up in the Administrative Record, and an appeal is based on what is in the Administrative Record. After enduring 10 years of mostly frustration, PARC now expects to reap the rewards of patience. Federal laws are on PARC’s side, and so are many case precedents that have been set at the 9th Circuit.

PARC just asks for continued public support for a little while longer. This case will be settled later this year.

You may have heard lately that the Supreme Court has overturned 80% of rulings from the 9th Circuit. That is true only for the one-tenth of one percent of appeals court cases that are appealed to the Supreme Court. The SMF case does not explore any new areas of law, so it will be one of the 99.9% of 9th Circuit rulings that stand.

Tohono O’odham Nation files Amicus Brief to support PARC and GRIC

On January 25, 2017, the Tohono O’odham Nation and Inter Tribal Association of Arizona filed an Amicus Brief at the 9th Circuit in support of the lawsuits against the SMF filed by PARC and the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). It is hard to say how much weight this filing will carry for our case moving forward, but it cannot hurt. The brief points out, in particular, that the court is obligated by federal law to give special consideration to complaints of distress and hardship filed by indigenous people.

Table of court rulings

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTPHOENIX, AZ(NO. 15-CV-00893 & NO. 15-CV-01219)

eNewsletter – published January 21, 2017

Another injunction denied by the Ninth Circuit

On January 13, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an injunction filed by the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) in an attempt to stop current work on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF). It is disheartening to hear yet another denial in our case. Yet we must remember that a ruling on the injunction request has nothing to do with the ruling we will get on our upcoming appeal.

As with the PARC injunction, the court did not specify the reason for denying the GRIC injunction, but they cited the same case precedent. In that case, a discussion about the requirements for granting an injunction includes that the plaintiffs “are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief.” Since ADOT has sworn to the court that it will not touch South Mountain until at least mid-2018, this is likely the reason for the denial. The court apparently feels that only destruction of the mountain is considered “irreparable harm.” All else are annoyances that can be “undone.”

In District Court (Phoenix) the judge ruled that the government has the discretion to do whatever it wants to with respect to the SMF (in other words, ignoring federal laws that say otherwise). At the 9th Circuit, our ruling depends on whether the panel of 3 judges decides to pay attention to federal laws rather than just to regurgitate the governments’ arguments. Why even bother to have federal courts if they ignore federal laws? There are also many precedents from the 9th Circuit that apply, and the court cannot ignore its own precedents. So, our chances of winning are really good. There is every reason to have hope!

We have been working to get this case to the 9th Circuit for 10 years, and we are finally there! We are now climbing the 9th Circuit mountain. The view should be terrific once we finally get to the top and see the light of a favorable ruling!

See the articles below for more information on the appeal. Oral arguments will be heard probably sometime this spring with the final ruling by summer.

Excerpt from legal brief

The following excerpt is from the legal brief filed by the Gila River Indian Community on January 18, 2017 in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Although it does not include all the issues raised in PARC’s brief filed in December, it is a good summary of the current situation from the GRIC point of view.

The defendant transportation agencies, in their enthusiasm to complete a long-ago-devised freeway cutting through a mountain sacred to an Indian Tribe, gave lip service to their statutory obligations to study fully and protect the tribe’s natural and cultural resources. The statutes require more than a rubber-stamping of a decades-old regional plan, especially when that plan would desecrate the land and ancestral treasures sacred to the sovereign nation that lived there for centuries.

The Gila River Indian Community (the “Community”) is a federally recognized Indian Tribe located south of the Phoenix metropolitan area. In 2015, the Federal Highway Administration (“FHWA”) and the Arizona Department of Transportation (“ADOT” and, collectively with FHWA, the “Agencies”) authorized the construction of the South Mountain Freeway (the “Freeway”), which would form part of State Route 202 and run directly adjacent to the Community’s borders. Besides permanently altering the natural environment within and near the Community, the Freeway would require the destruction of portions of South Mountain, a vital core of the Community’s spiritual beliefs and a sacred resource central to its culture and religious practices.

The record reveals that the process of evaluating and selecting the Freeway was flawed from the start. Rather than follow federal statutes and regulations and properly evaluate the impacts of potential alternatives, the Agencies took steps to validate a decision that had been made more than 30 years earlier. This prejudgment approach violated the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act (“Section 4(f)”), and applicable regulations.

To predetermine the outcome, the Agencies began the NEPA and Section 4(f) process by defining the statement of “purpose and need” so narrowly that it could only encompass the desired highway: a “major transportation facility” within a narrowly restricted study area. With these parameters drawn tightly, the Agencies then screened out numerous viable alternatives because they fell outside the parameters, i.e. they were inconsistent with the “purpose and need.” This bypassed a thorough study of options that would have avoided harm to the Community and the surrounding environment.

The Agencies concede that throughout the process, they never deviated from their selection of the Freeway as the chosen alternative. They concede that they ignored the advice and recommendations of the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). They concede that in evaluating the no-build option, they relied on data that assumed the construction of the very highway at issue. And they concede not only that the project would cause environmental harm along the highway corridor, but that the Freeway would have minimal benefits for the region as a whole in the coming decades.

Yet the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Agencies and against the Community and plaintiffs in a consolidated action. The Court erred, among other reasons, because:

The Agencies unlawfully limited their stated purpose and need;

The Agencies improperly substituted decades-old local planning for a proper and thorough application of the requirements under NEPA and Section 4(f), in violation of federal regulations that constrict when prior analyses may be used;

By using an unreasonably narrow statement of purpose and need, the Agencies improperly eliminated from consideration numerous viable alternatives;

The Agencies failed to determine and evaluate the extent of harm to the Community and its members;

The Agencies approved a route that, absent additional design and analysis, was not feasible because it would result in the illegal taking of wells held in trust by the United States for the benefit of the Community.

In its Order, the district court misapplied governing law and abused its discretion by disregarding undisputed facts throughout the administrative record. The Court of Appeals should reverse the district court’s Order and enter judgment in favor of the Community and against the Agencies.

Donations are tax deductible!

I Have a Dream

Around Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, it seems appropriate to remember Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In it he addressed issues that lay at the very foundation of our society. While I do not pretend to have the presence or charisma of Dr. King, I also have a dream about a very important foundational issue of our society.

I have a dream that Americans understand the important responsibility of staying well informed about issues that affect our community as well as our nation. In our current society, the internet and social media make it so easy to access information – indeed we often do not need to access it, we are bombarded with it! It is not so easy, however, to get good, trustworthy information.

I have a dream that our citizens will seek information sources with integrity and seek information about all sides of an issue! It is not as difficult as it may seem. With internet search tools, we can easily search for information on a topic. The key is to look at more than one source and more than one viewpoint.

My current issue of concern is the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF). It distresses me greatly to hear so many Ahwatukee residents just regurgitating the propaganda that is ever emanating from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). As a government agency, ADOT gets plenty of coverage from valley news outlets. Unfortunately, throughout the SMF process, ADOT’s media releases have been obfuscating and deceitful about the purpose and need for the SMF. Meanwhile, the coverage about the legal challenge to the SMF has been minimal at best (kudos to the Ahwatukee Foothills News for covering it without bias). Most people know the challenge exists, but how many have made the effort to become informed about the “other side” of this issue?

I have a dream that everyone in Ahwatukee would look at the website provided by Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) at www.protectAZchildren.org. This website details how ADOT created the SMF under the influence of the trucking industry, and how the freeway is neither needed nor does it meet the requirements of federal law. The PARC lawsuit against ADOT is very strong; it is currently under appeal; and it is likely to stop the SMF fiasco. It will be settled sometime this coming spring or summer.

While it is true that ADOT won the first round from Arizona District Court, the local court is unfortunately quite biased toward any part of Arizona government. The court claimed that ADOT had the discretion to approve the SMF in spite of the fact that the process used was clearly in violation of federal law! The laws might as well not exist if agencies are permitted to use discretion to the point of ignoring the intent of the applicable laws!

As early as 2006, when PARC formed, it was clear that this lawsuit would need to go to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco before the case would get a fair hearing. After ten years of listening to ADOT propaganda and recently having to tolerate ADOT’s destruction of Pecos Road even while knowing the lawsuit is not yet settled, the case is finally in the Ninth Circuit. We are close to our objective! Yet, as ADOT intended all along, the propaganda has worn down the resolve of so many of the citizens.

Still, I have a dream that this community will continue to support PARC until the matter is resolved. Even for those who are skeptical, is Ahwatukee not worth fighting for? Is it not worth at least a small donation to continue to support the fight?

If nothing else has convinced you, the mess that is now Pecos Road should open your eyes! Think about a freeway crossing over intersections such as 32nd Street, elevated way above ground level, bringing an ugly vision of truck traffic along with noise and pollution into homes and schools nearby. Consider how the entire fabric of the community of Ahwatukee would change from a marvelous place to live and recreate into just another freeway “slum.” Finally, consider that South Mountain Park, a wonderful wilderness park with so many recreational opportunities nearby, would lose all semblance of “wilderness,” never to be regained.

Donations are tax deductible!

Checks may be made out to PARC and sent to PO Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455. Credit card donations may be made at the PARC website www.protectAZchildren.org. Please stay informed and stay positive. Ahwatukee is worth fighting for!

This article is due to be published in the Opinion section of the Ahwatukee Foothills News on Wednesday, January 25, 2017.

eNewsletter – published November 28, 2016

Temporary disappointment from Ninth Circuit

Objecting to PARC’s request for an Injunction Pending Appeal with the Ninth Circuit, ADOT stated in their brief to the Court that, “The contractor will not be permitted to begin any construction activities in the Center Segment until July 2018 at the earliest.” The Center Segment is the part of the SMF that goes through South Mountain. The above statement was ADOT’s way of convincing the court that an injunction was not necessary because South Mountain is safe until after the appeal is heard. The Court bought the argument, evidently seeing no irreparable harm occurring on Pecos Road.

While we may not agree that the damage to Pecos Road can be restored properly after we win the appeal, it is true that Pecos Road can be restored. Pecos Road will continue to exist until the appeal process is complete because there can be no freeway until after the segment through the mountain has been blasted.

We are thankful that South Mountain will not be touched until well after the ruling on the appeal. If all goes as expected, we will win the appeal and South Mountain will be preserved. Then Pecos Road can be restored to a city thoroughfare with vegetation in the median and along the side of the road.

Funding the fight

We are now at the last and most important stage in this battle that PARC has been waging on behalf of the Ahwatukee community for over 10 years. The deck has been stacked against us all along, as this is a David vs. Goliath-type fight.

Unfortunately, as ADOT has hoped all along, the public enthusiasm has waned after all these years, and many people have lost hope just when we have arrived at the step where we have a real hope of winning.

We have been preparing for the appeal in the Ninth Circuit all along, knowing that this is where we can win this fight. We have an extremely strong case and our chances are quite good that we will win in the Ninth Circuit. Our attorney, Howard Shanker, assesses our chances of winning at 80-85%, and he should know.

We assessed the total cost of this fight at about $500,000 when we first got started, and that number still seems about right. Unfortunately, we are now stuck at having raised about $350,000. It is a significant amount, but we still have a way to go. Howard has been working without pay all year.

You can help by making a personal donation and also by encouraging your HOA to continue to fund this fight. If HOAs had donated last year at their original rate we would already be well over $400,000 raised. HOAs typically have donated $5 to $10 per household, and that is not much per household. It adds up, however, to a very significant amount.

To assist with the continued legal costs of this lawsuit, please send a check to:

PARC
P.O. Box 50455
Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455

or go to the PARC website at www.protectAZchildren.org and donate by credit card using either the green or the gold “Donate” button. Alternatively, use the “Donate” button provided on this newsletter.

Thank you for your continued support.

Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway hoax exposed

The Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF) concept is a major hoax being perpetrated by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). It is an extremely expensive project based on fictitious needs.

The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) first conceived the SMF in the early 1980s. They had plans for three loops around the Phoenix metropolitan area, but none of these had a southwest sector to “complete the loop,” largely because the geography of the area does not support a freeway southwest of downtown. The city’s commercial area, however, is located on the city’s southwest side, and certain business interests convinced MAG to “stimulate the economy” of the valley by providing a truck bypass to their area. To comply, MAG decided to “force-fit” the Loop 202 freeway through South Mountain, destroying three ridges and cutting through South Mountain Park and Preserve. MAG did not consider that they would be subjecting the freeway environs to at least 30,000 pollutant-spewing trucks per day, harming the health of the population (particularly children), threatening the safety of Ahwatukee residents with trucks carrying hazardous materials through a vulnerable residential area, degrading a fragile wilderness environment in South Mountain, and destroying the sanctity of a mountain sacred to many indigenous people.

Real solutions exist for stimulating the flow of goods to and from the commercial area, but a truck bypass within the metropolitan area and through precious public lands is not one.

Forcing a freeway through public land is a violation of Section 4f of the Transportation Act, and freeway plans must also go through a process prescribed by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Providing a shortcut truck bypass would not be an acceptable reason for destroying public lands, causing health problems, etc. So MAG and their builder ADOT had to “gin” up some kind of requirements that would appear to satisfy the concerns these laws address.

To make it look legitimate and to garner public support, ADOT began a public relations campaign to make people believe that the SMF would relieve traffic congestion during rush hour. This was a real stretch considering that the SMF would provide no access to downtown. ADOT led the public to believe the SMF would remove traffic, particularly trucks, from I-10 going downtown, improving traffic on the Broadway Curve. Commuters who would love anything that would cut time from their daily grind were quick to believe this – not because it made sense but because they so desperately want it to be true.

ADOT’s “logic” makes very little sense. Would a truck driver wade into Phoenix rush hour unless s/he had business downtown? Coming from east to west on I-10, truckers just passing through the area take the current truck bypass along I-8 from Casa Grande to Gila Bend and then SR-85 north to Buckeye where they join I-10 again. Truckers heading for the commercial area take Riggs Road across the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) eventually emerging onto 51st Avenue.

As ADOT created an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to satisfy the requirements of NEPA, they used MAG traffic models in an attempt to prove that the SMF would improve traffic. These models are just projections, of course, so they contain allowances for errors. ADOT took the most advantageous values from the models for justifying the SMF that they could come up with (i.e., values that contain maximum errors skewed toward showing a need for a freeway) in order to provide a table in the EIS that shows projected time savings for the SMF in 2035. The table shows that a commuter from Ahwatukee to downtown Phoenix would save one minute from their current commute time. ADOT’s own best estimates clearly show that the SMF is a total waste of money!

ADOT public relations spins statements about the SMF to mislead the public. ADOT only talks about the 20 minutes a driver might save driving from Chandler to Avondale using the SMF instead of going through downtown. So just how often would people from Chandler want to go to work or shop in Avondale? Hardly enough to justify billions of dollars for the SMF. The facts are clear that commuters would gain virtually nothing.

Real solutions exist for improving traffic congestion during rush hour. The SMF, however, is not a solution. ADOT could fix the problems at the Broadway Curve by fixing the Broadway Curve!

The lawsuits filed by Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) and the GRIC make clear that current SMF plans violate both NEPA and Section 4f. The lawsuits point out clear environmental, health, safety, and cultural violations of law. Notwithstanding the “unbelievable” ruling by the local Arizona District Court, a court ruling that follows the law will clearly stop this freeway hoax. The appeal that is currently in process at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals should provide a fair ruling on this case. PARC’s attorney, Howard Shanker, who is very experienced in this type of case, advised PARC from the very beginning to expect a logical ruling when the case got to its final stop in the Ninth Circuit. Thank goodness the case if finally there, and we expect to win this fight by next year.

It is only through public watchdogging that government agencies can be made accountable. ADOT has not been challenged before and it shows. They bully their way to get what they want. This time, however, ADOT will be made accountable.

A modified version of this article was published in the Ahwatukee Foothills News.

eNewsletter – published October 31, 2016

Local Judge finally rules on injunction pending appeal

Judge Diane Humetewa of the Arizona District Court has finally ruled on the injunction request PARC made on September 6, 2016. The result was bad news and good news. The bad news is that the judge ruled against granting the injunction pending appeal. This was, however, expected since she was the same judge who ruled against us on our case. Going through the District Court was a necessary step to getting the injunction request to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The good news is that now PARC can file an injunction pending appeal with the Ninth Circuit, and that filing should be sent to the Ninth Circuit within the week. Unlike the District Court, the Ninth Circuit is expected to take the request for an expedited ruling seriously, so a ruling is expected in November.

PARC Birthday Party a festive event

At the public event on October 13, 2016, PARC provided a beautiful and delicious birthday cake to start the event off right. Attendees enjoyed the party and mingled among the silent auction items. Between donations made at the door and those collected from the silent auction, the fundraiser brought in well over $1000.

The public meeting was very informative. PARC President Pat Lawlis provided a brief history of PARC’s 10 years. Then, Steve Brittle of Don’t Waste Arizona reminded the audience that PARC is finally in the position we envisioned 10 years ago. The freeway case is in court, and it has finally made its way to the Ninth Circuit where it will be decided. While the lower court ruling was disappointing, particularly because PARC’s arguments were clearly very strong, the ruling against us was not unexpected. We anticipate a different result in the Ninth Circuit.

The evening was topped off with PARC attorney Howard Shanker discussing the case and answering questions. Howard also emphasized the fact that PARC is exactly where we want to be with respect to this case. We have a very strong case, and the Ninth Circuit will now rule on it. The appeals court consists of a panel of 3 judges.

Howard also discussed the issues relating to the injunction pending appeal. He promised to get the appeal to the Ninth Circuit one way or the other within the next couple of weeks. See the article above for details on where the request for injunction now stands.

Ahwatukee is under assault from several directions

At present, the freeway threat is not the only threat to Ahwatukee’s way of life. Below we share information from two other groups who are fighting to prevent the destruction of our community. To save our community, we must all work together.

eNewsletter – published October 6, 2016

Come to the PARC Party and Public Meeting October 13th

In September, PARC was 10 years old! On Thursday October 13, 2016, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm we will have a PARC Birthday Party and Silent Auction with a Public Meeting at the Four Points by Sheraton, 10831 S 51st St. The Sheraton is the former Grace Inn at Elliot just off the I-10.

The birthday party (with cake, of course) and silent auction will start at 6:00, with the public meeting starting at 7:00. There will be a cash bar available. The silent auction will end at 8:00, with results posted shortly thereafter. BE SURE TO BRING A CHECKBOOK FOR THE SILENT AUCTION. You never know what might tickle your fancy! The meeting will continue until all questions are answered.

At the Public Meeting, we will provide specific news about the progress of the injunction and the appeal. Don’t miss your chance to hear all about it and get your questions answered!

Items still needed for the silent auction

We are still in need of items for the Silent Auction. The auction is a major source of fundraising. If you have an item, a basket of items, a gift card, a service, or whatever that you would like to donate to our silent auction, please let Dan Wishnatsky know as soon as possible. You can contact Dan at dmw@e428.com or 480-560-6700.
See you on October 13th!

eNewsletter – published September 9, 2016

Injunction and appeal filed

The following is from the news release PARC sent out on September 6, 2016:

Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) et al appealed the recent Arizona District Court’s ruling that would have permitted the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to build the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway. At the same time, PARC also filed an injunction to stop ADOT from starting construction of the freeway until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the case.

The Gila River Indian Community, also a plaintiff in the case and also harmed by the District Court’s ruling, is expected to file a similar appeal and injunction in the near future.

PARC President Pat Lawlis stated, “As I stated previously, the District Court ruling was an unbelievable travesty of law. The laws might as well not exist if the agencies are permitted to use discretion to the point of ignoring the intent of the applicable laws.”

It was remarkable that Arizona District Judge, Diane Humetawa, would indicate that ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration should not have to consider health impacts on children in their Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision. This ruling is in direct violation of provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Court’s ruling also violated Section 4(f) of the Transportation Act that prohibits the construction of a highway through public parkland unless (1) ADOT could show that there was no feasible and prudent alternative and (2) that it had done all possible planning to minimize harm to the parkland. ADOT was unable to satisfy either of these requirements. In fact, many feasible and prudent alternatives were purposely ignored, and the FHWA decision to approve the project was made before even 15% of the project design was complete – hardly “all possible planning to minimize harm to the parkland!”

PARC et al believes that the appeal to the Ninth Circuit will provide a much different result because the law will be properly applied in that Court.

Mark your calendar for a PARC Party and Public Meeting October 13th

Donations are tax deductible!

In September, PARC will be 10 years old! On October 13, 2016, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm we will have a PARC Birthday Party and Silent Auction with a Public Meeting at the Four Points by Sheraton, 10831 S 51st St. The Sheraton is the former Grace Inn at Elliot just off the I-10.

The birthday party (with cake, of course) and silent auction will start at 6:00, with the public meeting starting at 7:00. There will be a cash bar available. The silent auction will end at 8:00, with results posted shortly thereafter. The meeting will continue until all questions are answered.

By the time of the Party and Public Meeting, we should have more specific news about the injunction, the appeal, and the GRIC filings of the same. That should provide for some lively discussions!

If you have an item, a basket of items, a gift card, a service, or whatever that you would like to donate to our silent auction, please let us know as soon as possible – no later than October 6th – with a return email to PARCtheSMF@aol.com.

eNewsletter – published August 21, 2016

Disappointment not defeat

It appears that Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) was too optimistic in expecting a local judge to side with anyone but the Arizona state government. Stopping the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF) is a David vs. Goliath battle, so why would we expect it to be won so easily? We are disappointed, but we are by no means defeated.

PARC’s next step is to file an appeal and an injunction to stop all work on the SMF. These documents will be filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, a much different court in many ways from Arizona District Court in Phoenix.

The case was heard in Phoenix by one judge. All indications are that she is very inexperienced in cases involving the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Her ruling that permitted the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to continue “preliminary work” on the SMF while the case was pending was highly unusual, and this was our first clue. Unfortunately, the result of that ruling was the demolition of many homes and the destruction of many of our foothills.

Then there was the date that the judge set for herself to have the ruling out – July 13, 2016. She missed that by more than a month. Her inexperience in not knowing how long it would take to review the case? A workload that is too heavy? Who knows, but this latest ruling in favor of ADOT makes it crystal clear that the judge does not understand NEPA. While we had hoped that her integrity would override her inexperience, it is now clear that other pressures came into play.

NEPA required ADOT to follow a particular process when planning the SMF project. ADOT did not follow the prescribed process. Section 4f of the Transportation Act prohibited ADOT from putting a highway through public parkland unless (1) ADOT could show that there was no feasible and prudent alternative and (2) that it had done all possible planning to minimize harm to the parkland. ADOT was unable to satisfy either of these requirements.

Yet, the Court ruled that ADOT was permitted to use extremely wide discretion in planning the SMF and was therefore not violating federal law. The laws might as well not exist if agencies are permitted to use discretion to the point of ignoring the intent of the applicable laws.

We always knew that this case would eventually go to the Ninth Circuit, so we are still on track. Of course, we now must be the ones to file the appeal, and we must ask for an injunction to stop SMF work. This legal necessity is annoying but certainly doable. So why are we still upbeat about taking the case to the Ninth Circuit?

First, it is in San Francisco, not Phoenix. As much as we would like to think that politics should not influence our courts, it does. Second, a panel of three experienced judges will hear the case in the Ninth Circuit. These judges have dealt with NEPA many times, and they understand the legal precedents that have been set both in the Ninth Circuit and other appeals courts. Third, the Ninth Circuit is known to make environmentally friendly decisions. Last and perhaps most important, the Ninth Circuit decision will be final so we will not have to “play politics” any more and sometime in 2017 or 2018 this fight will finally be over.

Of course, the appeals process will require a lot of time-consuming legal work. Many Ahwatukee residents are already stepping up to help fund this final leg of our legal fight. Will you join them with a tax-deductible donation to PARC? Checks may be made out to PARC and sent to PO Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455. Credit card donations may be made from this newsletter or at the PARC website www.protectAZchildren.org. From that website you may also access our Facebook group. Please stay informed and stay positive. Things that are worth fighting for are also worth waiting for.

This article (slightly modified) was also submitted to the Ahwatukee Foothills News.

PARC party still a go

In September, PARC will be 10 years old! It is clear that it will be closer to 12 years old before this fight with ADOT is over!

In spite of the recent lower court ruling, it is time for a Birthday Party and fundraiser! We are now looking at the middle of October and will finalize the date when we get closer. We still need more volunteers to help in planning. Please respond to this newsletter or post on our Facebook page if you are willing to help.

eNewsletter – published July 25, 2016

Being patient is difficult

During the legal proceedings regarding our court case, the judge imposed a deadline on herself of July 13, 2016 for having the ruling out. That deadline, however, has come and gone and still no ruling. It is highly unlikely that the delay has anything to do with the judge’s decision. Our courts are busy and delays are common. Recently, a PARC member provided some unverified information that may at least provide some perspective. Below is from what PARC President Pat Lawlis posted to our Facebook page:

The last thing I want to do is to start an unverified rumor. Yet to be fair to all of you who have been on pins and needles like me, I think I should share what I was told today.

A PARC member told me that he had run into someone from the courthouse who shared some information with him. He was told the judge has not yet decided in our case. The judge has a very heavy load with around 300 cases, so we probably will not get a ruling until the end of summer at the earliest!

So let me once again say that this is unverified information, but perhaps it can give us all a chance to take a deep breath and go on with our normal lives. The truth is, we now have no idea when we will get a ruling.

In the meantime, it will be pretty obvious if ADOT really tries to start construction (lots of equipment and earth moving starting at or near the I-10), and we will file an injunction if that happens. The annoying stuff that is going on now is still “pre-construction”.

One more thing. Please do not contact the judge’s office trying to get more information. We do not want the judge to think of us as pests, and her office does not give out information. What the PARC member heard today came from a chance meeting outside the courthouse. So please take that information for what it is worth.

Rest assured the ruling will be reported in this newsletter as soon as the ruling is out.

Help PARC plan a party!

In September, PARC will be 10 years old! It is hard to believe we have been fighting this freeway for so long. Of course, it is also hard to believe that the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) first conceived this freeway over 30 years ago, and ADOT is still using that same 30-year old plan. So what if ADOT has received public input throughout the planning process. Clearly, ADOT has not paid any attention to that input!

It is time for a party! We expect this to be a Victory Party as well as a Birthday Party! We are looking at the middle of September and will finalize the date when we have the location nailed down. Currently, we need volunteers to help in planning. This will be a party and a fundraiser. Please respond to this newsletter or post on our Facebook page if you are willing to help.

eNewsletter – published June 5, 2016

PARC Public Meeting after ruling is out

The ruling for our court case will be out no later than July 13, 2016. We will have a PARC public meeting shortly after it comes out to discuss the ruling and what it means. We have 2 possible dates in mind, depending on how soon we get the ruling. Save the dates of June 29th and July 20th.

What’s Really Happening With the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway

Over 80,000 people live in Ahwatukee. As a result of this proposed freeway, a significant number of these people are losing (and, if the freeway is built, will continue to lose) value in their homes. The freeway would impact the ability of thousands of people in the area to bike, hike, and generally enjoy the views and relative quiet currently enjoyed in the area. Construction and utilization of the freeway would negatively impact our health and the health of our children, family members, and friends. In exchange, we would get a $3 billion “freeway” that ADOT admits would have virtually no impact on rush hour traffic on existing freeways. Why is it then, that only a handful of people – probably less than 1% of the people who live in Ahwatukee – have done anything to fight the Loop 202 freeway?

ADOT would have you believe that the freeway is a “done deal.” Many people seem to parrot this suggestion as a justification for not joining the fight. Indeed, many of our neighbors make this assertion with apparent knowing conviction. First of all, fear of losing is not a justification for failing to stand up for what’s right. Secondly, nothing could be further from the truth. Anybody who attended the recent oral arguments in federal court can tell you that the case that our attorney put on in opposition to the freeway was extremely strong. Indeed, it was apparent that, if the Judge properly considers and applies the law in this case, she will stop the freeway in its tracks.

We understand that the public gets much of its information from the press and, as a result, ADOT. This is generally no more than biased spin. The fact is that the Judge has taken this case under advisement. She will issue her decision before July 13, 2016. ADOT cannot begin construction of the freeway until after July 13, 2016. If we prevail in the lower court, as we should, ADOT cannot begin construction at all.

Even though we strongly believe that the Judge should rule in our favor, if she rules against us, our attorney will have to file a Notice of Appeal and a Motion for an Injunction Pending Appeal right away. If the lower court Judge rules in our favor, it is likely that ADOT/FHWA will appeal to the Ninth Circuit. As you can imagine, this continues to be a massive undertaking. Our attorney, Howard Shanker is one of the best and most experienced attorneys in the Country in this area of the law. His fees/costs in litigating this matter have been far less than fees charged by, for example, the outside law firm that ADOT has hired to be paid for by our tax dollars! Yet he has not been paid since November, 2015. If Mr. Shanker has to petition the court for an injunction pending appeal and pursue this matter in the Ninth Circuit, this case will require even more attorney time and resources going forward. It is simply not fair for the thousands of people who will be impacted by this freeway to sit back while a handful of us do our best to oppose this freeway and fund this litigation. It certainly is not fair to have Mr. Shanker carry the burden of the litigation that could easily be split among the tens of thousands of residents of Ahwatukee who stand to potentially benefit from our case.

We don’t understand why only a small number of people (thank you) have contributed to this process that would ultimately protect their homes, health, and lifestyles. Many of you contribute money to good causes. It is unlikely, however, that many of these “good causes” that you help to fund have the same potential for directly impacting your daily life. PARC will gladly accept a tax-deductible contribution in any amount. With this appeal, however, we are asking that you contribute $45 to PARC so that we can continue this fight on your behalf. This is an insignificant amount of money in light of the gravity and nature of the cause and in light of the actual value received.

You can click on one of the buttons provided in this newsletter or send a check to PARC, PO Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455. Thank you. Please share this message with as many people as you can.

eNewsletter – published May 15, 2016

PARC showed up in force at the courthouse

About 35 PARC members arrived at the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 for the demonstration at 9:00 AM. The media were present in force. They were greeted by smiling faces, a chant of “save the mountain, save the kids, say NO to 202” and 20 signs that told the story of the PARC et al lawsuit.

Inside the courthouse, Courtroom 605 held about 80 people. It was half filled by ADOT and half by PARC. The hearing was briefly delayed because about 75 more people were lined up outside the already full courtroom, mostly PARC members. The court opened an adjacent courtroom for the overflow so everyone could be seated and hear the proceedings.

The hearing went from 10:00 AM until nearly 4:00 PM. Governor Stephen Lewis and members of the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) were also present (many are PARC members). After court was adjourned, ADOT attorneys left the room with solemn faces. PARC and GRIC attorneys and supporters were all smiling.

ADOT Loop 202 poor planning exposed in court

On Wednesday, May 11, 2016, during the hearing for the lawsuits challenging the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF), the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) was exposed for poor planning in the SMF project.

Before the hearing, the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) had blustered loudly about how they would get the lawsuits challenging the SMF dismissed. Now, it is clear that the lawsuits brought by Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) et al and the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) have solid grounds.

PARC et al and the GRIC have contended in their lawsuits that, among other things, ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) produced an environmental analysis for the SMF designed to rationalize a decision that was already made, chose a study area that was too restrictive, failed to consider a reasonable range of alternatives, failed to adequately consider numerous significant negative impacts associated with the project, and provided approval to the project that was arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.

ADOT has tried to spin things to look like they have done an inordinate amount of planning for the SMF and that the lawsuits are merely a nuisance. After all, they claim to have responded to over 8000 comments from the public. Truth be told, however, they merely collected the comments. In all their planning, ADOT largely ignored public input.

Even with the South Mountain Citizens Advisory Team (CAT) that ADOT put together to make recommendations regarding the SMF, ADOT ignored their recommendations. The CAT met for 12 years and was asked for 2 recommendations.

The first was where the western end of the SMF should connect with the I-10. The CAT recommended connecting the SMF to the Loop 101 at the I-10. ADOT ignored this recommendation and announced that the SMF would connect to the I-10 around 55th Avenue, where ADOT had been planning to put it for 30 years.

This ADOT decision supported the contention of SMF opponents that regardless of what ADOT claims is the purpose of the SMF, the only real purpose for the freeway is to provide a shortcut for trucks to get to and from the commercial area around 51st Avenue. Howard Shanker, attorney for PARC et al, brought out in court further support for the claim that the sole purpose of the SMF is to be a truck bypass. In spite of ADOT’s claims that the SMF is needed to reduce traffic congestion in the Phoenix area and specifically at the Broadway Curve, Mr. Shanker pointed to a table in ADOT’s own Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) which shows that with the SMF in place, a commuter from Ahwatukee would realize a savings of one minute.

At the end of the CAT tenure, the second recommendation ADOT asked for from the team representing the public was a simple “build” or “no build.” By a 2 to 1 margin, the CAT recommended “no build.” Again, ADOT ignored this recommendation.

Most of the issues surrounding the SMF lawsuits focus on how well ADOT and the FHWA followed the process prescribed in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The FHWA is the main defendant in the suits because they approved ADOT’s project. The FHWA and ADOT contentions are that by force-fitting elements of their pre-determined SMF decision into the steps required by NEPA, they have done all that NEPA required. The plaintiffs, of course, do not agree.

The lawsuits also claim violations of Section 4f of the Transportation Act, which requires that a highway can only be put through public park land if two conditions are met: 1) there must be no other viable alternative and 2) the agencies proposing the highway must have done all possible planning to mitigate harm to the park land.

Although the FHWA and ADOT claim that the Pecos Road alignment for the SMF is the only viable one, PARC et al and the GRIC have shown a number of other viable alternatives that were dismissed out of hand largely because the study area for the SMF project was defined so narrowly that only the Pecos Road alignment would fall inside it.

In looking at whether the FHWA and ADOT have done “all possible planning” for the SMF, their “house of cards” was exposed in court by David Rosenbaum, attorney for the GRIC.

Mr. Rosenbaum explained that the U.S. government owns 3 wells in South Mountain specifically for the use of the GRIC, and ADOT’s plans show that the SMF would go right on top of them. These wells belong to a sovereign nation and are not subject to being taken by ADOT using eminent domain laws. Evidently, ADOT’s planning was not very thorough at all, considering it did not realize that it could not take these wells until after it had finalized the EIS for the SMF and after the FHWA had approved the current SMF plan.

In fact, as Mr. Shanker also exposed in court, ADOT documents show that it had not even completed 15% of the SMF design before it finalized the EIS for the SMF. Even now, ADOT has only completed 15% of the design, hardly “all possible planning.”

Judge Diane Humetewa has now taken the arguments presented in court under advisement. Her ruling will likely be rendered in several weeks.

The above is a news release sent from PARC to all media in the Phoenix area on May 14, 2016. The media typically prints an ADOT news release in its entirety. It will be interesting to see what the media does with this one, if anything.

eNewsletter – published May 4, 2016

Court demonstration changed to BEFORE the hearing

On advice, we have changed the demonstration in front of the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix to 9:00 am on Wednesday, May 11, 2016. We want to be sure we can give the media a specific time to be there, and we want to capture people as they are anticipating the hearing. After the hearing is over, if there is still energy and an audience, those who wish to stay can demonstrate some more. We will have 18 professionally made signs available for those who wish to carry them during the demonstrations.

The hearing for PARC et al and the GRIC’s lawsuit against ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regarding the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will be held at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 605 of the Courthouse. The hearing is open to the public, and everyone who can attend is encouraged to do so to show support for the people against a corrupt government project. Please do not bring your cell phone. You will not be admitted until after you take the phone back to your car.

Club West residents to petition for new vote on PARC funding

We are in the process of developing a petition to the Club West HOA Board asking them to hold a special meeting and ballot to revisit the donation of $25,000 to PARC for 2016. We hope to be able to collect several hundred signatures from Club West residents on this petition. If you want to help, either respond to this newsletter or watch the PARC Facebook group page for a copy of the petition and ideas on how to collect signatures.

eNewsletter – published April 23, 2016

Court date and demonstration

The hearing for PARC et al and the GRIC’s lawsuit against ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regarding the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will be held on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 605 of the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix. The hearing is open to the public, and everyone who can attend is encouraged to do so to show support for the people against a corrupt government project.

If you come for the hearing, we hope you will stay for the demonstration. We are planning for a demonstration in front of the courthouse immediately after the hearing. That should be at around 11:00. The media will be advised, and you know they cannot resist a demonstration! We will have more than a dozen signs available for demonstrators to carry. The media will finally get some of the correct facts about this case!

SMF quality no concern for ADOT

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) plans to build the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) “on the cheap” – except that they do not mind spending millions of taxpayer dollars to try to protect themselves from the lawsuit filed by Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) et al and the Gila River Indian Reservation (GRIC) to stop this poorly planned atrocity.

ADOT hired a California legal firm, Nossaman, to defend ADOT in the lawsuit against the SMF while the Arizona Attorney Generals Office is available to provide counsel on staff at no cost to ADOT. Nossaman fees have already cost taxpayers over $1 Million, and the lawsuit has not even been heard yet!

Meanwhile, ADOT hired a contractor, Breinholt, to demolish homes in Goldman Ranch in Ahwatukee. The contract allowed Breinholt to loot the homes before demolition. According to ADOT, Breinholt was not required to recycle valuable materials from the homes. Of course, residents who were forced out were not permitted to take these items. Instead, Breinholt employees were seen hauling off appliances, cupboards, ceiling fans, doors, etc. Then everything remaining went into our landfills.

During the Goldman Ranch demolition work and while school was in session, Breinholt caused a gas leak at a home directly across Liberty Lane from the Kyrene de la Estrella Elementary School. The fire department evacuated all remaining homes on the south side of the street because of the danger, yet the school on the north side did not get evacuated! ADOT evidently worked with the media that they have “in their back pocket,” and this story did not even make the news!

Once demolition was done, Breinholt left what used to be Goldman Ranch in a shambles. It took contacts with the Ahwatukee Foothills News and Councilman DiCiccio’s office to get ADOT to start cleaning it up.

Water is a big issue surrounding the proposed freeway, and ADOT is showing an effort to drill a new well to replace wells that are in the freeway right-of-way. Have you seen the drill rig on the north side of Pecos Road by 24th Street just north of the current well that is in the right-of-way? Geologic surveys and unsuccessful attempts by homeowners associations have shown that water is not likely to be found north of Pecos Road. While it would be great for Ahwatukee golf courses and more if ADOT’s drilling were to be successful, the important thing to ADOT is that they can show they have “tried” to find replacement wells. You can bet they will not spend much money on the search!

ADOT has also promised the GRIC that it would have the SMF contractor work around the GRIC wells on South Mountain so the freeway does not destroy the wells and they would still be accessible. Nothing more than “trust me” was in this promise. Just imagine how hard ADOT would work on solving Lakewood’s well issues.

ADOT has been blustering recently about how the freeway would be done more quickly and at reduced cost. ADOT’s track record shows that this means they will do the freeway “on the cheap.” For example, they plan to do the SMF “above grade” rather than below ground level. Above ground is not only cheaper, but it would be unsightly and it would make noise abatement almost impossible given the proximity of South Mountain to produce echoes.

Have you noticed the fenced off area just off Pecos Road between Desert Foothills Parkway and 24th Street? ADOT will not talk about why this is fenced off and guarded during the day. Yet observation makes it clear that this area contains some large deposits of attractive rocks covered with “desert varnish.” The desert varnish covering takes thousands of years to develop, and it produces valuable landscaping rocks. ADOT evidently does not want to talk about it because they are preserving the rocks – and paying taxpayer dollars for protecting the area – so they can provide these rocks as favors to their preferred landscapers.

ADOT has completed 15% of the SMF design, and they plan to leave all remaining design to the SMF contractor. In other words, ADOT is removing itself from responsibility for poor quality work that will result from doing the freeway “on the cheap!”

ADOT and quality do not go hand in hand. ADOT takes care of contractors, not residents.

PARC needs continuing donations to prepare documentation for our May 11, 2016 hearing in District Court as well as for the appeal to the Ninth Circuit. For your donation, see the PARC website at protecAZchildren.org to donate by credit card, or send a check to PARC, PO Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455.

This opinion piece by PARC President Pat Lawlis was published in the Ahwatukee Foothills News on April 20, 2016 with the sentence identified in blue above omitted – the TV stations and the Arizona Republic were the targets of the comment.

eNewsletter – published March 15, 2016

Mark your calendar for our lawsuit hearing

The hearing for PARC et al and the GRIC’s lawsuit against ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regarding the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will be held on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 605 of the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix. The hearing is open to the public, and everyone who can attend is encouraged to do so to show support for the people against a corrupt government project.

Be prepared, however, just to listen to attorneys arguing. No witnesses are usually called in a case like this. Each side will argue for “summary judgment.”

The long, drawn out SMF process

The process leading up to the hearing involves a lot of paperwork!

The process actually started with meetings (such as the meetings of the South Mountain Citizens Advisory Team, or SM CAT) and studies initiated by ADOT. Of course, ADOT never mentions two recommendations that came out of the SM CAT meetings over a period of years. About half way through their set of meetings, the team recommended that the western connection of the SMF should be at the Loop 101 in Tolleson. ADOT summarily rejected this recommendation and instead stayed with their original plan from the 1980s for the SMF to intersect the I-10 at 59th Avenue. At the very end of the SM CAT meetings, ADOT asked for a “build” or “no build” recommendation for the whole project. The team recommended “no build” by about a 2 to 1 margin. ADOT, of course, also summarily rejected this recommendation.

Next, ADOT produced a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to which PARC, the GRIC, and more than 8000 others responded. Most of the comments were negative and suggested all sorts of improvements that ADOT needed to make to their process. ADOT mostly just made excuses about why the suggestions were not appropriate or would not work.

Then came the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) that contained little new except for all the comments on the DEIS, along with all ADOT’s excuses. Once again, PARC, the GRIC, and many others responded about ADOT’s failure to address the concerns that they had voiced in response to the DEIS.

The SMF project was then approved by the FHWA in the Record of Decision (ROD), which also contained nothing new. The ROD contained the comments made to the FEIS along with more excuses. Then ADOT’s plans that were not substantially altered after they were made 30 years before were “shoved down the throats” of the citizens of Arizona.

The publication of the ROD ended the period where administrative solutions could be found for problems with the SMF. Next came legal solutions.

First, PARC et al and the GRIC filed separate complaints against ADOT and the FHWA in Federal District Court. Then the complaints were combined. Next came the preparation of a series of documents to prepare for the court hearing.

The defendants (ADOT and FHWA) filed “answers” to the PARC et al and GRIC complaints.

Then the defendants were required to produce the Administrative Record (AR) of the case. This AR included everything that was ever officially produced for the SMF, including minutes of all meetings, all reports that had been produced, and the DEIS, FEIS, and ROD documents (which contain all the comments made by the public and the non-responses provided by ADOT). The printed AR contains more than 250,000 pages of text. It provides the basis for all arguments that can now be made in this case. The only other documents that now matter are the applicable laws and any legal precedents that apply. The applicable laws are the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Section 4(f) of the Transportation Act.

Next the plaintiffs (PARC etal and the GRIC) filed Motions for Summary Judgment. These motions contain all the arguments of the case with appropriate references to the information in the AR. Of course, the defendants then got to file their opposition to the plaintiffs’ motions, and then they filed their own Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment. These documents were just filed on March 7, 2016.

Still to come, the plaintiffs (that is PARC et al and the GRIC) will file their replies and opposition to the defendants’ Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment. Finally, the defendants will file their reply. All of this will be completed before the hearing on May 11th.

Before the hearing, the judge will try to absorb all the pertinent parts of these many documents. ADOT and the FHWA have tried to make this job as difficult as possible by producing so much “stuff” for the judge to examine. At the hearing, the judge will let the parties argue concerning their Motions for Summary Judgment and she will ask questions. That will be it for the hearing.

Within a couple of weeks after the hearing, the judge will produce her ruling. We expect this ruling by the end of May.

We have every expectation that the ruling from the Federal District Court will be in our favor. If so, a permanent injunction would be issued and ADOT would not be able to do anything else related to the SMF. We expect that ADOT and the FHWA would appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, but the injunction would remain in place. Once the lower court ruling is upheld, the ruling would be final and the SMF would be done.

Of course, we must consider that the ruling could go against us. The only way that can happen is if the court does not follow the law, but there is always an outside chance that could happen. In that case, we would immediately appeal to the Ninth Circuit and ask for a temporary injunction. The injunction would at that time be granted because ADOT would be ready to start building the SMF. We would then expect the Ninth Circuit to overrule the lower court ruling, issuing a permanent injunction. The Ninth Circuit ruling would be final and the SMF would be done.

After ADOT loses in court, the SMF project could potentially be restarted from scratch, but at that point ADOT would have to follow the law. The result would be a transportation solution that would look nothing like the current SMF plan. The new plan would likely not even include a freeway. Instead, it would include improved arterial streets, new and improved forms of public transportation, and new and improved bike lanes and multipurpose paths. The public could really get behind such transportation improvements. The chances that ADOT would go for such a new path, however, are very slim.

Another important date

On Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 7:00 pm Lakewood will have a Town Hall Meeting at Kyrene de los Lagos Elementary School multi-purpose room (17001 S. 34th Way).

This meeting is intended to create a dialogue in which Lakewood residents can share opinions on the impact of the proposed South Mountain Freeway and what actions the Lakewood Community Association should take. If you live in Lakewood, it is important that you let your voice be heard!

PARC Attorney Howard Shanker and PARC President Pat Lawlis will be present to answer questions.

South Mountain event and Transportation Day

The South Mountain event brought a number of people past our table where they received handouts and discussions from both PARC volunteers and volunteers from the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC). It was a beautiful day, and many were enjoying our mountain. Park Rangers and Park Stewards were available to talk with everyone who used the Telegraph Pass trail.

Transportation Day was another rousing success for the God’s Garden Preschool, with over 4000 in attendance. We had a steady stream of people passing our PARC booth, where kids were really taken by our Goliath game. We offered 3 wiffle ping pong balls for $5 for a chance to silence the ADOT Goliath by putting a ball through his lying mouth! The kids loved it, and parents came along and paid attention to our booth. We ended up talking with a lot of people.

Club West disappoints

At the annual meeting of the Club West HOA, homeowners voted for or against funding for PARC as well as funding for the Festival of Lights. It was extremely disappointing that the FOL funding was overwhelmingly approved while the PARC funding was defeated by 30 votes. There had been a negative campaign to vote against PARC. While it didn’t produce that many negative votes, apathy ruled the day for PARC supporters.

We thank all those Club West homeowners who voted for PARC funding. Perhaps next year we can make up for this loss. Meanwhile, we need to step up fundraising in Club West. We need 250 homeowners willing to donate $100 each to make up for our loss of HOA funding! We appreciate those who have already made such a donation.

eNewsletter – published February 12, 2016

Transportation Day

PARC will participate in Transportation Day again this year. It will occur on Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 9:00am to 1:00pm at the home of God’s Garden Preschool on Liberty Lane (at the Horizon Presbyterian Church). PARC’s version of the ADOT Goliath will be there to entertain. If you did not see Goliath at the Festival of Lights Kickoff Party, you missed some fun! Come and see if YOU can be the David to quiet the ADOT Goliath by throwing a ball through his big mouth!

Law vs. ADOT regarding SMFEditorial by Pat Lawlis

Many people still think that no lawsuit can stop the South Mountain Freeway (SMF). Doubters are not surprising given the political exaggerations and lies
we hear every day. Surely, Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) et al are exaggerating their expectations for stopping the freeway
with a lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) et al. Right? Not so fast.

Now that the lines for the lawsuit have been drawn and the Administrative Record (everything that can be argued in the lawsuit is in the AR) has been
generated, we will examine some of the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Section 4(f) of the Transportation Act. Then we will
compare those provisions against what is in the AR. That is how the court will determine a verdict on each of the 20 counts of the suit.

1. NEPA provides that a decision on the route of a freeway should be made after the completion of an environmental impact study and the issuing of a Record
of Decision (ROD). The AR shows that the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) determined the route of the SMF in the 1980s. ADOT has continued with
that planned route since then. The ROD, published in March of 2015, rationalized that 30-year-old decision as part of a “NEPA decision process.”

2. NEPA provides that ADOT must respond to public comments. The AR shows that ADOT received over 8000 public comments on the SMF but was not responsive to
these comments. Nothing has changed since the 1980s.

3. NEPA mandates an evaluation of alternatives to accomplish the general goal of an action. Precedent-setting court decisions have stated that alternatives
cannot be restricted to just those alternatives that would reach the agency’s goals. Yet the AR shows that ADOT restricted the study area for the SMF
project to a small area of Maricopa County, eliminating such reasonable alternatives as the current Phoenix truck by-pass (from I-10 at Buckeye to Gila
Bend via SR 85 and then to I-10 at Casa Grande via I-8). In fact, ADOT restricted alternatives to the point that the Pecos Road alignment was the only one
possible for the eastern segment of the SMF.

4. NEPA requires that a “No Action” alternative be considered and compared with any action alternatives. The AR shows that the models used by ADOT to
evaluate the “No Action” alternative assumed the existence of the SMF! Hence, the evaluation of the “No Action” alternative was legally deficient.

5. Section 4(f) requires that parkland may not be used for a project unless there is no feasible and prudent alternative. As mentioned in 3 above, ADOT did
not consider other feasible and prudent alternatives (which were pointed out to them in many comments documented in the AR).

6. Section 4(f) requires that even if an alternative does not exist (many do), approval must not be given for a project through parkland unless all
possible planning has been done to minimize harm. Legal precedents have established this to mean that virtually all design must be completed. The AR shows
that only a draft of 15% of the SMF design was completed before the ROD was issued (the 15% design has since been finalized).

These are just some of the more mundane legal issues for PARC’s lawsuit. Space does not permit explanation of all the issues. All of ADOT’s actions are
well documented in the AR and the law is very clear on the issues in the suit. PARC only need prevail on one of these issues to stop the SMF. If the court
follows the law, PARC will prevail on all counts.

So is PARC exaggerating its expectation of stopping the SMF? While it is always tempting to hype issues, it is not necessary for this lawsuit. Even if
Arizona politics come into play – knowing that Arizona officials often like to ignore Federal laws – this case will be heard in Federal District Court in
Phoenix. It will also be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Just ignore that Governor Ducey is trying to get Arizona out of
the Ninth Circuit. Even if he eventually succeeds, this case will go to the Ninth Circuit.

PARC needs continuing donations to prepare documentation for our May 11, 2016 hearing in District Court as well as for the appeal to the Ninth Circuit. For
your donation, see the PARC website at protecAZchildren.org to donate by credit card, or send a check to PARC, PO Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455.

This editorial has been submitted to the Ahwatukee Foothills News.

PARC continues to expose ADOT’s lies and to protect the public from paying additional tax dollars for ADOT’s $2-4 Billion SMF boondoggle. PARC also continues to need your support – $50 to $100 per household is a wise investment. Please donate at protectAZchildren.org.

eNewsletter – published January 13, 2016

Save the dates

PARC will be co-sponsoring a “We Love South Mountain” event in conjunction with the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC) on Saturday, February 20, 2016. This event will encourage participation from hikers, walkers, runners, and cyclists. We will meet at the Kyrene Altadena Middle School parking lot on Desert Foothills Parkway and make our way from there to the Telegraph Pass trailhead. Participants will choose their own form and length of exercise. PARC and PMPC will have tables at the trailhead to provide information to educate and update the community about the detrimental effects ADOT’s South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will have on South Mountain’s recreational value. Donations will also be collected. More information will be forthcoming.

PARC will also once again participate in Transportation Day. It will occur on Saturday, February 27, 2016 at the home of God’s Garden Preschool on Liberty Lane. PARC’s version of the ADOT Goliath will be there to entertain. If you did not see Goliath at the Festival of Lights Kickoff Party, you missed some fun! Come and see if you can be the David to quiet the ADOT Goliath by throwing a ball through his big mouth! Again, more information will be forthcoming.

Where’s the hype?

In this culture of bluster, insults, and fast-paced violence, the media uses hype to get attention. The media loves to follow the Arizona Department of
Transportation (ADOT) as they demolish homes. ADOT is using home demolitions to instill fear into Ahwatukee residents and try to chase potential donors
away from Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC).

Bluster and fear may make for good entertainment, but they are not credible. More than anything else, they mark bullies who are trying to draw attention
away from their own weaknesses. ADOT’s bluster and fear tactics are trying to keep the public from realizing that PARC’s lawsuit to prevent ADOT from
building the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF) is extremely strong.

How can I make such a bold statement when ADOT continues to demolish homes? The fact that the judge would not stop ADOT demolitions for the SMF is an
unfortunate result of her belief that home demolitions cannot be called “irreparable harm” because the owners were reimbursed. Had PARC had affidavits from
some of the homeowners stating what a hardship it would be for them to lose their homes, PARC might have been able to convince the judge otherwise. The
homes that were lost, however, had homeowner’s associations (HOAs) that failed to support PARC. The result was predictable, though unfortunate. The fact
remains that the court ruling against stopping home demolitions had nothing to do with the merits of the lawsuit and its upcoming hearing on May 12, 2016.

The preparation for the hearing has generated a few small bits of drama. ADOT has wasted more taxpayer money by hiring an outside law firm from California,
Nossaman, to work for them in this case in spite of the fact that they are also using attorneys from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (no cost). Do
you think ADOT would have hired Nossaman if ADOT thought they had handled the SMF project correctly?

Recently, PARC attorney Howard Shanker noticed a document missing from the Administrative Record and requested that it be provided. Nossaman denied the
request and told Shanker to “file a motion” to get it. Does this not make you wonder what ADOT is trying to hide? When Shanker said he would file the
motion “tomorrow” (December 29, 2015), US Department of Justice attorney John Tustin made the document available. Yes, there are federal attorneys involved
because the Federal Highway Administration approved ADOT’s SMF.

This type of suit depends on:

The process that ADOT has followed as documented in the Administrative Record. The Administrative Record is the collection of all documents and
materials that have been presented by and to ADOT in its preparation for the SMF project (including all letters and responses to ADOT’s documents), along
with all presentation materials and minutes of meetings that ADOT has conducted for the SMF project.

The laws that relate to the process of developing the SMF project. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) provides the description of the
process that should have been used. Section 4f of the Transportation Act describes the process for gaining approval for building a highway through a public
park. ADOT’s SMF process has blatantly violated both of these laws in multiple ways, and it is all documented in the Administrative Record.

PARC’s attorney Shanker, and his ability to prepare and present the case against the SMF. Although some PARC supporters have been disappointed that
Shanker will not hype this case, his credentials and his preparation for this case cannot be denied. It is a fact that an attorney cannot ethically assure
victory in a case. It is also a fact that Shanker has tried more NEPA suits in the state of Arizona than any other attorney and has won most of them. He
directed PARC throughout the process of reviewing and commenting on ADOT’s documents related to the SMF so that everything needed to win this case is now
documented in the Administrative Record. Shanker’s statement is that the PARC case is “extremely strong” – the type of quiet confidence that wins where it
counts, in court.

All that remains is to wait for the hearing and the lower court’s decision. From there the case will undoubtedly be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco, where the final ruling will be made. In this culture of instant gratification, we tend to want to inject some form of hype into
the waiting process. Keep in mind that the hype makes no difference, but your donation to support PARC helps tremendously. See the PARC website at protecAZchildren.org to donate by credit card, or send a check to PARC, PO Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455.

eNewsletter – published November 10, 2015

Most lawsuit work behind the scenes

Most of the recent work on the PARC et al v FHWA and ADOT lawsuit has been behind the scenes. You may have noticed a couple of significant events. Because the defendants asked for more time to produce the administrative record, the Court revised the schedule for remaining lawsuit events. That schedule is now as follows:

Administrative record due on or before November 16, 2015

Parties confer on issues regarding administrative record on or before December 22, 2015

Motions concerning administrative record to be filed on or before January 4, 2016

Motions for Summary Judgment filed by Plaintiffs on or before February 5, 2016

Opposition to Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Defendants on or before March 4, 2016

Reply to opposition to motion filed by Plaintiffs on or before April 1, 2016

Reply to reply to opposition to motion filed by Defendants on or before April 25, 2016

Oral arguments before the Court Thursday, May 12, 2016 at 10:00 am, Courtroom 605 of Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix, AZ

As a part of the defendants’ request for more time, ADOT agreed that freeway construction would not commence prior to July 13, 2016. This represents a delay of approximately 2 months from ADOT’s original statement that they wanted to start construction mid-May.

Councilman Sal DiCiccio and State Representative Jill Norgaard released a joint statement about the delay saying “Judges Delay in South Mountain Freeway Construction Shows Project is Wrong for Pecos Road.” Kudos to them for spreading the word!

Please be generous with end of year giving

We do not anticipate publishing another newsletter before next year, so this is a good opportunity for PARC to say “thank you” for your previous generosity and request your consideration for end of year giving. Remember that PARC is a 501(c)(3) organization so all donations are tax deductible.

Donations work toward:

Stopping the currently approved freeway alignment along Pecos Road and through South Mountain; ADOT would have to start over using a realistic environmental impact study, and the result would be nothing like the currently proposed SMF.

Stopping choking air pollution from an ill-conceived truck bypass; this would save over 15,000 school children from the risk of retarded lung development, and it would save the entire population from increased respiratory ills.

Stopping the threat of destruction of a significant part of the South Mountain Park and Preserve; destruction of wildlife habitat; ruining the experience of hiking and biking the wilderness.

Stopping the threat of a hazardous material accident in an environmentally sensitive area where the freeway would cross South Mountain and next to a community of 80,000 where evacuation would be very difficult.

Stopping the threat of the loss of wells that feed the lakes in all of Ahwatukee; recent reports have verified that ADOT has no plan for saving the wells — everything would be left up to the contractors; we have already seen how well ADOT controls their contractors through the experience of home demolitions where dust was not properly controlled, the contractor caused a dangerous gas leak, and contractors were permitted to loot the homes before demolition with everything that was left going to a landfill instead of to a charity such as Habitat for Humanity or Stardust.

Stopping the loss of Pecos Road, an important venue for cyclists and runners alike; an important artery for community access as well.

We have much to look forward to next year. Meanwhile, may you have a wonderful holiday season, no matter how you celebrate it! Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Happy Holidays! Happy New Year!

ADOT worried — wastes time and money

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) loves to be boastful — just like any bully who wants to scare people away so they will not look too closely at what the bully is really up to. As you probably know by now, Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) has not been frightened by ADOT and all its wealthy, influential benefactors. We are looking closely at what ADOT has been doing with respect to the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF) project, and the public needs to be aware of what we have found.

ADOT has the attorneys of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office at its disposal (without fee), and the Attorney General’s Office is the largest law office in the state. Yet ADOT has found it necessary to hire an outside law firm from California, Nossaman LLP to defend it against a small grass-roots organization like PARC in our lawsuit against the SMF. So no matter how loud the bully gets and how many homes it demolishes, you can be sure ADOT is very worried about the lawsuit.

From records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, PARC has found that ADOT has paid Nossaman $1,082,553.40 of our tax dollars from June 2014 when they were apparently hired through July 2015. Much of this expense to the attorneys was to research PARC (yes, the invoices say that)! The lawsuit was just filed in May 2015, so expect much heavier expenditures now that the lawsuit is underway.

Are you sick to your stomach yet? Wait, there’s more!

When we got the records of Nossaman’s invoices to ADOT, we found that ADOT turned over the entire public records “database” on the SMF project to Nossaman, an attorney’s office. The reason became clear when we asked for a copy of the public records database and we were told that it was “attorney-client privileged!” Interesting tactic, but it will do ADOT no good. While there undoubtedly are some documents that are truly privileged communications between Nossaman and ADOT, the public records are not privileged, and no amount of “laundering” them through an attorney will change that. So what are they trying to hide?

In a Court document dated August 26, 2015, defendants in the SMF lawsuit, ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), were ordered to produce the administrative record of the case on or before October 26, 2015. This record contains the proceedings of every meeting along with every document that has been officially produced for the SMF project. ADOT and the FHWA claim this record will be about 250,000 pages long, so the Court and PARC have agreed that it only needs to be produced on electronic media. If you know anything about electronic files, you know that they can be copied easily to other electronic media very quickly — even if the documents are large. The one complication in this case is that some of the culturally sensitive information concerning the location of cultural sites sacred to the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) must be redacted from the record before public distribution. This requires doing an electronic search of the documents for certain keywords, and then making appropriate modifications to those documents where the keywords are found. I would give ADOT and the FHWA about a week to accomplish all of that — just to be generous and allow for bureaucratic inefficiency. Yet the defendants filed a request to get the deadline extended three more weeks to November 16, 2015. Are they that incompetent or are they attempting to extend the case as long as possible? The hearing date has now been extended to May 12, 2016, and ADOT has agreed that freeway construction would not start before July 13, 2016.

So how long will it be before the media and the public recognize that ADOT is lying. Among other things, they are lying about the purpose of the SMF and what it would accomplish. The SMF would not improve traffic congestion at all. PARC’s experts have proven that using ADOT’s own data. The SMF would, however, become a major truck bypass, with at least 30,000 trucks per day traveling through Ahwatukee! With the prevailing winds coming in from the south and South Mountain providing a barrier, what do you think that would do to our air quality? Think Los Angeles!

PARC continues to expose ADOT’s lies and to protect the public from paying additional tax dollars for ADOT’s $2-4 Billion SMF boondoggle. PARC also continues to need your support – $50 to $100 per household is a wise investment. Please donate at protectAZchildren.org.

ADOT endangered Estrella Elementary School while children attended class!

On September 11, ADOT demolition contractor Breinholt Construction caused a natural gas leak during home demolition near 26th Street and Redwood Lane. This location is just across Liberty Lane from Kyrene de la Estrella Elementary School, and the leak occurred while school was in session. One spark and the entire neighborhood, along with the school and all occupants, could have been blown up!

The Phoenix Fire Department responded to the scene and quickly evacuated nearby neighbors. There was no way, however, to evacuate Estrella School quickly enough if a spark had ignited the gas. Fortunately, the gas was dispersed and a spark did not occur – this time.

Many more homes are slated for demolition, however, and ADOT has taken no responsibility for the carelessness of its contractor. Instead, ADOT created a letter, distributed to parents by officials at Estrella, downplaying the seriousness of the incident.

This is a perfect illustration of the regard ADOT has for our community!

eNewsletter – published August 25, 2015

Victims or proactive citizens?

Did you see the story about the 3 Americans who brought down a would-be terrorist on a French train last Friday, saving numerous lives? These men could have done nothing and become victims. Instead they were proactive, risking their lives to stop the terrorist.

I’m not suggesting that bringing down the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will be quite so heroic. Preventing a would-be freeway disaster, however, will undoubtedly save our community and our city from becoming a smog haven much like Los Angeles. In the process, we will also save many lives that would be taken from the effects of the air pollution, and we will also save the quality of life of Ahwatukee, the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC), South Mountain Park Preserve, and ultimately the entire Valley of the Sun. We will not be victims. We are proactive citizens!

We will not be victims of ADOT’s scandalous behavior! We are proactive citizens who will stand up to ADOT and stop their ill-conceived freeway atrocity that violates both the letter and the intent of the federal law governing freeway planning. The destruction of homes is an unfortunate result of a court decision that we did not like. Because of the court ruling, most of the homes in Goldman Ranch have been vacated. Some homes in areas in the far western section of Ahwatukee also have been vacated. These homes will be torn down, but we can ensure that these ADOT actions do not ruin the rest of Ahwatukee.

Supposedly, ADOT is going to start tearing down those vacant homes this week. The thought of it makes us sad for all the families who have lost those homes. The thought that ADOT is once again showing off as bullies and starting to destroy part of Ahwatukee makes us angry, and we start to fear for what Ahwatukee would look like if ADOT got its way and put that freeway through. We are also angry, however, because we know in our hearts that ADOT will not gets its way and that the freeway will never happen. So ADOT is making their property holdings worth far less by destroying the homes on those lots. When ADOT is forced to sell those properties again, they will have to take a huge loss, and that makes us angry as taxpayers.

We are all sad about this situation, and we cannot change it at least for the time being. We are still too far away from the time when ADOT will actually start construction. We must not, however, take on a defeatist attitude.

Given the current situation, with all the homes now vacant, look at the positive side. ADOT is doing our community a favor by not leaving vacant homes around to attract homeless squatters and street crime! Think about what would become of those neighborhoods if those homes were to stand there vacant for several years! Remember that it will take a good while to settle this court case once and for all. ADOT will not be forced to sell those properties until after the case is finally settled in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That will probably be at least 2018.

So we must channel our disappointment and our anger into positive steps. We need to work with the Phoenix Police to patrol the areas that are being turned into gravel lots. Even vacant lots can attract vagrants and druggies if we are not vigilant.

Not only do we need to report crime that we witness in our neighborhoods, but we also need to develop active neighborhood Block Watch groups to protect our neighborhoods. Block Watch groups work. When neighbors are looking out for neighbors and neighborhoods and immediately reporting suspicious activity to the police, criminals are chased to other areas where they do not get noticed and harassed.

If your neighborhood has a Block Watch, find out who your leader is and become an active part of the Block Watch. Work together with your neighbors to actively walk your neighborhood streets regularly. If your neighborhood does not have a Block Watch, start one. Contact Officer Deb Iodice, the City of Phoenix Block Watch Coordinator at 602.495.0597. She will work with you and connect you with officers in Ahwatukee. You can also check out the website at www.phxblockwatch.org.

Another proactive step you can take is to contact your local, state, and federal representatives about ADOT’s irresponsible behavior in dragging out the planning for this albatross of a freeway for 30 years, forcing the citizens to take ADOT to court while ADOT continues to eat up our tax dollars for nothing. All this money will go “down the drain” when ADOT loses in court – as they must because they have violated both the letter and the intent of several federal laws in their faked planning process. ADOT has been irresponsibly spending millions of taxpayer dollars for

(1) preparing a voluminous environmental impact study meant to mask the reality that they are going through the motions and mis-using the National Environmental Policy Act process to try to justify an outdated 30-year old decision,

(2) purchasing property during the past 30 years only along the route they chose 30 years ago – clearly they had no intention of ever considering any other route,

(3) hiring an outside law firm from California to defend them in court and paying attorneys $635 per hour when the AZ Attorney General’s Office has attorneys on staff who are also being used on the case – a clear indication that ADOT knows their actions are indefensible, and

(4) tearing down real estate that will result in a huge net loss for the taxpayers again when that property must be resold.

Of course, one more positive step you can take is to donate to the PARC David v. Goliath Victory Fund! Use the buttons in this newsletter to donate by credit card or use the address at the bottom to send a check. Rest assured, PARC will not squander your donations the way ADOT likes to squander our tax dollars!

Do not be a victim! Be a proactive part of the solution. Save Ahwatukee, the GRIC, South Mountain, and the Valley of the Sun from the SMF disaster!

New unexpected support from the West Side

“The Research and Advocacy Committee of the West Side Town Hall Program (WSTHP) has reviewed the pros and cons for the South Mountain Freeway, and now takes a position supporting the Opponents.

“The Reasons:

1. A better Phoenix bypass would be in the SR 85 Corridor (Buckeye to Gila Bend) because it ultimately would be the bypass used to connect with the I-11 (Phoenix-Las Vegas) bypass around Wickenburg. This way only one bypass would have to be constructed to serve two purposes—Phoenix bypass & I-11 bypass.

2. The Warehouse District in West Phoenix would continue to be served by Rail, as well as by I-10 and a ADOT proposed I-10 Reliever Route from 59th Ave. to SR 85 Corridor south of I-10.

3. A proposed Economic Development Site at 59th Ave. & I-10 still could be developed given the I-10 Reliever Route and a WSTHP proposed Parkway in the 59th Ave. Corridor from I-10 to Baseline Rd.

4. The proposed Parkway would provide better access to Laveen and would improve access for Laveen residents to the 59th Ave. Economic Development Site, Downtown Phoenix and the proposed 99th Ave. Economic Development Site at I-10 via the I-10 Reliever Route. Thus traffic to and from Laveen would be dispersed rather than concentrated, avoiding an already-overburdened I-10 between 79th Ave. and Downtown Phoenix.

5. Traffic congestion on I-10 from Ahwatukee to Downtown Phoenix could be reduced by a WSTHP proposed Ahwatukee-Chandler Economic Development Site on an abandoned golf course in Ahwatukee. This also would eliminate the need to provide an alternate route between Ahwatukee-Chandler and Downtown Phoenix.

6. The WSTHP’s Research & Advocacy Committee also supports the Gila River Tribal Council and the coalition tribal members who have pointed out that South Mountain has been Sacred for the Tribe for centuries and that the South Mountain Freeway would result in a major barrier between Tribal lands and the numerous sacred sites on South Mountain.

7. The WSTHP’s Committee also supports the Tribe and its tribal members in opposing cutting off 31 acres of South Mountain at the west end to accommodate the South Mountain Freeway. Sacred sites are located within the 31 acres.

8. The WSTHP’s Committee also thinks the municipalities in Maricopa and Pinal Counties should show they want to genuinely be Good Neighbors to the Gila River Tribe by not increasing traffic and pollution near the Tribe’s lands. The Gila River Tribe’s long-term goal is to return to full-time sustainability as a farming community. The South Mountain Freeway would send more development, traffic and pollution past the Gila River Tribe on I-10 between Ahwatukee-Chandler and Casa Grande.

9. The WSTHP proposed I-10/I-11 bypass in the SR 85/I-8 Corridor would take traffic and pollution south of the Gila River Tribe’s lands by linking at the I-10/I-8 interchange.

10. A further Good Neighbor gesture would be to limit development on state trust lands east of Casa Grande, contrary to the development proposal in the Sun Corridor Report published by the ASU Morrison Institute in 2014. ”

The above words come directly from a document produced by the WSTHP. This group has a very different perspective on the freeway than those of us who live in Ahwatukee, but they have come to the same conclusions as we have – the SMF is a bad deal for the citizens of the Valley of the Sun. The WSTHP has made their position known to all local and state politicians as well as other community members. Slowly but surely, residents of other parts of the Valley are beginning to realize that the SMF is a boondoggle!

As Ahwatukee goes, so goes its quality of life
by Dr. Pat Lawlis, President of PARCThis is the eighth and last in a series on areas of concerns with the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF). Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) believes the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and ADOT are complicit in:

Distortion of purpose and need for the SMF

Air pollution

Negative health effects – especially for children

Destruction of wells

Danger from hazardous materials

Desecration of South Mountain

Destruction of quality of life (noise, crime facilitation, home values)

Most residents of Ahwatukee are passionate about the quality of life they have just because they live in this community. In preparation for writing the final installment of this series, I asked many Ahwatukee residents what quality of their lives they believe the SMF would ruin. The responses I received tell the story:

[Schools] Many residents have grave concerns about sending their children to Ahwatukee schools post-SMF. Not only are they concerned about the damage SMF-caused air pollution could do to their children’s health, but they are also concerned about how the school enrollments would change and how the quality of the schools might change. Lack of evacuation security in case of a hazardous materials (hazmat) spill on the SMF is also a major concern.

[Noise] Noise pollution would ruin Ahwatukee’s peace and quiet, a main reason many residents moved here. With 15,000 to 30,000 commercial trucks on the SMF every day, traffic noise would be deafening. The unsightly sound wall would do very little good when the freeway is above ground and so many homes are even further above ground.

[Light] Light pollution is a concern because so many residents enjoy being able to stargaze into the dark skies to the south.

[World’s largest cul de sac] Ahwatukee currently has no “pass through” traffic. The SMF would open up access to 135,000 or so vehicles daily, including the trucks mentioned above, many of which would be carrying hazmats. With no plan for protecting the community from a hazmat spill and open access that would facilitate more crime, peace of mind and a sense of security would be ruined. The sense of community that so many residents currently feel and cherish would also be severely compromised.

[Recreation] Recreational opportunities that currently abound in Ahwatukee would be significantly diminished with the desecration of South Mountain and the loss of Pecos Road. Ahwatukee would no longer be the same “safe” place to ride a bike, run, or participate in many other forms of recreation.

[Air quality] With the freeway, that brown haze that we all see over other parts of the Valley would make its way into Ahwatukee as well. In fact, the effects of the prevailing winds and South Mountain could make it far worse in Ahwatukee as the pollution builds up against the mountain! Children and seniors would be particularly susceptible to respiratory and cardiac problems.

[Nature] Many residents moved to Ahwatukee because they cherish the opportunity to be close to nature while at the same time being near the city and all that it affords. With the SMF, the wells that feed our lakes and keep our golf courses vibrant would likely be gone, ruining much “open space” as well as the natural beauty of the community. In addition to loss of habitat, the SMF noise would also chase the wildlife and drown out the sounds of remaining birds. As one resident said, many residents would leave for good – including many people.

[South Mountain] South Mountain would be ruined in many ways. Mountain ridges would be destroyed. The far west end of the park would be virtually unusable as a park. Some great views would be gone. Wildlife and plants would disappear from the ecosystem of the mountain as migration routes would be ruined and invasive species would take hold. The mountain that is so important to recreational opportunities for Ahwatukee and the entire Valley would be forever degraded, with recreational experiences ruined.

[Property values] Property values would be sure to go down. Many residents are already leaving, and many more would join them with the SMF ruining Ahwatukee. Those who would replace the departing residents would surely come for different reasons. They would change the entire character of neighborhoods, and Ahwatukee would likely become just a poor suburb. Those who had expected a vitalized community would find that the poor use of transportation funding for the SMF would result in a crumbling infrastructure inside a crumbling community.

With the SMF, as Ahwatukee would be degraded, so also would the residents’ quality of life.

This series of 8 editorials has been printed in the Ahwatukee Foothills News with the exception of this last installment, which has been submitted and should be printed in an upcoming issue. I would like to thank all of you who contributed to this last article by responding to my request for how the SMF would ruin your quality of life in Ahwatukee.

Finally, I encourage you to donate to PARC as much as you can (plus one dollar more showing your personal sacrifice) to put PARC’s legal team in a position to fight this fierce and necessary legal battle against ADOT robots who care nothing for the harm they would do to our children and others who currently live in a healthy environment!

eNewsletter – published August 12, 2015

Preliminary Injunction concerns

What you have been reading and seeing on TV regarding the Preliminary Injunction was misleading. The Court ruled that PARC was unable to demonstrate that ADOT’s current preparatory work for the freeway would cause irreparable harm. In other words, those who are being forced out of their homes are being compensated for it, so it is not considered to be irreparable harm.

The judge fully recognizes that once the freeway construction (or destruction) would start, irreparable harm would be done. ADOT has assured the court that construction would not start until at least the middle of May of 2016, so the irreparable harm would not be immediate. Hence, the preliminary injunction to stop all preparatory work that ADOT is doing was denied.

The good thing that came from the injunction hearing is that all parties involved have agreed to accelerate the case so that it will be settled on its merits before next May. It’s important to note 2 things:

The injunction hearing did not look at the merits of PARC’s case. The judge only looked at whether ADOT would be doing immediate irreparable harm.

If the case were to be delayed and not settled before next May, we can revisit the injunction, and at that point we would get it because ADOT would be ready to do immediate irreparable harm.

PARC is looking forward to the hearing on the merits of our case, and the court is already starting some of the background work on that. A date has not yet been set, however, for arguments to begin.

Why we expect to win

Let’s look at the lawsuit itself and explore why we expect to win it. The PARC et al lawsuit lists 20 Counts against the Federal Highway Administration and ADOT. We only need to prevail on one count to stop the SMF, but we expect to prevail on most if not all the Counts:

1. The FEIS justified a decision already made outside of the context of the NEPA process

2. The possible location of the freeway was limited to a “study area” that was designated outside of the NEPA process

3. The “purpose and need” statement for the project was impermissibly restrictive

The GRIC lawsuit that has now been consolidated with the PARC et al lawsuit lists similar allegations, but they have been organized into 3 Counts:

1. Violation of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

2. Violation of Section 4(f) of Department of Transportation Act

3. Injunctive relief

These are solid legal cases with a plethora of documenting evidence. The defendants are clearly violating the laws in multiple ways, and there are numerous legal precedents to back that up.

Litigation update

Attorneys for all sides are currently working toward a briefing schedule. The Justice Department has yet to produce the approximately 250,000 page administrative record that would be used in the case. We anticipate that the record should be produced in the near future. Once we receive and review the record, the case should move forward relatively quickly. We anticipate that the FHWA and ADOT will be filing various motions to dismiss – which should be denied by the Court – but which will require briefing and argument. The case should ultimately be decided on cross-motions for summary judgment.

We also anticipate that the District Court decision will be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – regardless of which side prevails.

Howard M. Shanker
Attorney for PARC et al

Successful PARC fundraiser at Loco Patron

The David v. Goliath Fundraiser at Loco Patron was a good time for all involved – and PARC raised some funds besides! It was impossible to get an accurate count of the number in attendance, but it was easy to tell that it was more than 120. Thanks to Robin Salthouse for organizing the event, to Loco Patron for hosting it, to all who donated items for the auction, and to all who were there. You made it a rousing success!

An accounting of the funds raised is as follows:

50/50 raffle $ 467.00

Auction items 223.00

Loco Patron 20% 310.00

Other donations 1685.75

Total $2685.75

South Mountain more than just a pretty face

This is the seventh in a series on seven areas of concerns with the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF). Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children’s (PARC’s) chances of winning in court are extremely good because the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) did a poor job studying the impacts of the SMF. For example, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and ADOT are complicit in:

Distortion of purpose and need for the SMF

Air pollution

Negative health effects – especially for children

Destruction of wells

Danger from hazardous materials

Desecration of South Mountain

Destruction of quality of life (noise, crime facilitation, home values)

In previous installments, I discussed the first five specific areas of concern with the SMF. This discussion will be about the sixth topic – desecration of South Mountain.

South Mountain is significant to people of the Valley of the Sun in different ways. In Ahwatukee, we live in the foothills of the mountain. South Mountain is the majestic barrier that separates us from downtown, putting our community into more of a suburban setting than an urban one. Ahwatukee is the “world’s largest cul de sac” nestled between the boundaries formed by the 17 mile long mountain and the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). Most Ahwatukee residents appreciate and enjoy the peace and quiet this status affords. Many moved here especially for this unique atmosphere of the community.

For most residents of the Valley of the Sun, the South Mountain Park Preserve (SMPP) is revered. Since the SMPP is the country’s largest wilderness municipal park, it provides many recreational opportunities that are unavailable in a typical urban setting. Within the City of Phoenix, the SMPP sports 51 miles of primary trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding. Residents have also voted overwhelmingly to preserve the mountains in the valley, including South Mountain. “Preserving” means specifically not allowing homes or roads to be built in, across, or through the mountain.

Perhaps not so obvious but just as important, South Mountain sustains both plant and animal life unique to an urban setting. The mountain is home to over 300 species of plants and more than 150 animal species. The delicate balance of life on the mountain would be upset by the SMF. The introduction of a highway would introduce new invasive species and block the normal migration paths of both plants and animals. The SMF would disturb the tranquility of nature so enjoyed by visitors to the SMPP, as well as degrading desert ecosystems.

In addition to the importance of South Mountain to residents of Ahwatukee and other parts of the Valley, its importance to members of the GRIC and other Arizona tribes cannot be overstated. For those of us who are not part of a Native American culture, it is hard to put this importance into perspective. Land has great significant to Native Americans. The closest non-Native Americans can come to understanding this point of view is to recognize that South Mountain and many particular locations and artifacts therein have very strong religious significance to many of our Native American friends.

In fact, members of the GRIC feel so strongly about preserving South Mountain as well as their way of life that they have filed their own lawsuit against the FHWA and ADOT to stop the currently approved SMF.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to preserve South Mountain, including three of its ridges that would be forever lost because of the SMF, let us work together to save our beloved mountain!

My next and last installment in this series will discuss the quality of life in Ahwatukee and on the GRIC that would be threatened by the SMF.

eNewsletter – published July 15, 2015

Howard Shanker at news conference.

Litigation update

The case is still proceeding as outlined in my previous updates. The case in chief is moving forward. Also the pending Motion for Preliminary Injunction is currently set for oral argument on July 22, 2015. On June 29, 2015, we filed our Reply Brief in Support of our Motion for a Preliminary Injunction. As part of that Reply, we included a declaration that supported our assertion – that without an injunction in place, “irreparable harm” would occur before the Court could decide the merits of the case. On July 6, 2015, we filed a Supplemental Notice of Authority which included, in part, a supplemental declaration that also supported our claim of imminent irreparable harm. On July 8, 2015, ADOT’s lawyers filed an objection to these declarations and asked the court to either strike the declarations or to allow ADOT to file a sur-reply. We filed our Response to ADOT’s motion today, July 13, 2015.

As many of you may have heard, on or about June 30, 2015, the Gila River Indian Community (“GRIC”) filed a Complaint against the Federal Highway Administration and ADOT, that largely mirrored the Complaint that we had filed earlier. GRIC also filed a Motion to Consolidate the cases, which makes sense under the circumstances. On July 8, 2015 Judge Humetewa issued a Minute Entry indicating that she knew two of the lawyers associated with the GRIC case. As a result, she gave the parties an opportunity to raise any objections to her continued involvement in a consolidated case. On July 13, 2015 the Federal Highway Administration (by its lawyers in the Justice Department) indicated that they had no objection to Judge Humetewa staying on the case. On this same day, ADOT’s lawyers filed objections to Judge Humetewa continued participation. Our position was that Judge Humetewa was eminently qualified to hear this case and that she would not have been influenced by any apparent knowledge of the GRIC’s lawyers. We currently do not know how this process will impact the pending motion for preliminary injunction, if at all. If a new Judge is assigned to the case (and the Motion for consolidation is granted), it will be done randomly. We have no say in, or control over, how that process works. I’ll do my best to continue to keep you posted as this process unfolds. Thank you.

Howard M. Shanker

Attorney for PARC et al

PARC fundraiser August 10th at Loco Patron

Mark your calendar! PARC will have a fundraising event sponsored by a local supporting business, Loco Patron:

This get-together will be informal. Come and support a local business that supports PARC! Come at any time during the 4-hour period, eat, drink, and get in on the raffles. Winners need not be present when the raffle winners are announced at 9:00pm.

Are you angry yet?

PARC is truly in a David v. Goliath-type battle against ADOT. ADOT is using all their many resources – which ultimately come from us, the taxpayers – to defend and justify their decision to build the proposed South Mountain Freeway (SMF).

ADOT has hired an outside law firm from California to run their defense against PARC in the lawsuit. ADOT has attorneys on staff, but now taxpayers will be responsible for Millions of dollars more in legal costs.

Some homeowners being evicted from their homes are receiving generous settlements from ADOT so they can get good public relations (PR) in the local media.

When evicted homeowners ask if they can remove some items they have added to their homes (things like ceiling fans and appliances) before ADOT demolishes those homes, ADOT says “No!”

Even when ADOT agreed to permit one homeowner to remove garage shelving, they later called on moving day to say they will bill the homeowner for the removed shelving!

ADOT has worked the media to try to convince Valley residents that the SMF is needed to improve traffic on other freeways. Yet even their own documents make clear that they know better! In their best (most exaggerated) efforts to justify the SMF they state that the existence of the SMF would save an Ahwatukee commuter all of one minute!

The latest insult is that now ADOT is telling the media that they considered all 8000 comments they received on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and adjusted their plans for the SMF accordingly. Those of us who provided those 8000 comments know that to be an outrageous lie! ADOT continues to push the very plan they developed 30 years ago – they admit it and they are proud of it!

So are you angry yet? Are you ready to start/continue your financial support for PARC’s lawsuit against ADOT? David defeated Goliath, and PARC will defeat ADOT – with your continued support. We are not asking for the Millions of dollars ADOT is paying their legal team. Rather, we are looking for just enough to sustain our lawsuit: $10, $20, $50, $100 – whatever you can spare.

Isn’t it time to donate?!

Trucks carrying hazardous materials are a real concern for Ahwatukee

This is the sixth in a series of discussions on seven areas of concerns with the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF). This series is also being published in the Ahwatukee Foothills News – in their own time. To begin the series, I discussed the fact that Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children’s (PARC’s) chances of winning in court are extremely good because the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) did a poor job studying the impacts of the SMF. For example, ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are complicit in:

Distortion of purpose and need for the SMF

Air pollution

Negative health effects – especially for children

Destruction of wells

Danger from hazardous materials

Desecration of South Mountain

Destruction of quality of life (noise, crime facilitation, home values)

In previous installments, I discussed the first four specific areas of concern with the SMF. This discussion will be about the fifth topic – danger from hazardous materials.

Tanker trucks carrying hazardous materials (hazmats) are common on the nation’s freeways. Restrictions, however, do not permit hazmats on some freeways. Why not? Why does this matter for Ahwatukee?

Although hazmat accidents do not occur frequently, when they do occur they can be deadly. Hazmats are not permitted to travel through freeway tunnels, such as the Deck Park Tunnel on I-10 in downtown Phoenix, because a hazmat spill in a tunnel would not permit the deadly fumes to dissipate.

Consider the SMF, on which 15,000 to 30,000 trucks per day, with hazmats numbering in the hundreds, would travel along what is now Pecos Road, just to the south of Ahwatukee. Hazmat accidents would not be expected to occur frequently, but sooner or later one or more would occur. What would we expect the outcome to be?

Today, Ahwatukee has essentially no danger of a hazmat spill. Occasionally a gasoline tanker services one of the Ahwatukee gas stations, but these tankers travel through Ahwatukee on surface streets, not a high-speed freeway.

The SMF would create a new situation altogether where a hazmat spill could put hundreds or even thousands of residents in grave danger. Unlike the spill that occurred in 2011 on the I-10 near Chandler Blvd., where the air moves freely and toxic fumes can be dispersed rather quickly, the prevailing southerly winds would bring the fumes from a toxic spill on the SMF right into the “world’s largest cul de sac” of Ahwatukee.

While Ahwatukee residents near the I-10 were evacuated to the west for a few hours as the fumes from the 2011 hazmat spill on the I-10 dissipated, many Ahwatukee residents would have nowhere to go to evacuate from a hazmat spill on the SMF. By the time they were notified of the situation, the fumes would already be spreading through the only streets available for evacuation. Driving through a toxic cloud is foolhardy, so going inside a building and closing doors and windows to shelter in place might be the best defense against the toxicity. Yet chlorine, one of the chemicals that would be transported on the SMF, is particularly deadly and can penetrate any building that is not sealed completely airtight, causing injuries and even death.

Alternatives? ADOT has not only failed to look at possible alternatives and plan for a hazmat spill situation in Ahwatukee, their Environmental Impact Statements have failed to mention that such a possibility even exists! In my view, this is criminal neglect. Our attorney general should be considering criminal prosecution of the ADOT officials responsible for this egregious omission.

Instead, our state government is complicit in trying to push through this dangerous freeway. The state has hired Nossaman, a private national law firm out of their California office, to represent ADOT in the SMF lawsuit, rather than using attorneys already on the state payroll. Just another outrageous waste of our tax dollars!

Now is the time to support our lawsuit against the FHWA and ADOT. Continuing support is essential as our suit works its way through the courts. The GRIC is paying for their suit, but PARC will finance its own suit – with your help!

The next installment will discuss the potential desecration of South Mountain.

eNewsletter – published June 10, 2015

Lawsuit filed – ADOT is nervousOn the outside we are seeing ADOT acting like a bully. They are pushing people out of their homes as quickly as possible, sometimes without even giving the resident a chance to arrange to haul large items away. Yet they direct the news media to the residents who are happy that they are getting relocation money.Bullies are insecure, and they do not want the public to see what they are doing. ADOT is no different than any other bully. They have hired Nossaman, a private national law firm out of their California office to represent them. Just imagine how many more of our taxpayer dollars they are wasting on that!

ADOT is now in the process of trying to rewrite the history of how they got to their decision on the current proposed route for the South Mountain Freeway (SMF). They are having “rallies” to try to convince everyone who will listen that they have followed the right process in getting to the Record of Decision (ROD) to build the SMF. They tell a tale of how they engaged the public and stakeholders – a true tale of revisionism.

They say they worked diligently to move the project onto the GRIC and avoid the Section 4(f) (Transportation Act) impacts of going through South Mountain. From 2002-2012 they claim to have had many GRIC/ADOT meetings. What an insult to our friends on the GRIC for ADOT to claim they worked closely with the GRIC for 11 years and worked hard to avoid impacting South Mountain.

The truth that is known to anyone who has been following this project over the years is that ADOT did not want to work with the GRIC, but the Governor forced them to the table in 2009. Even then, talks were not meaningful, as the “study area” did not include any alignment other than Pecos Road. Now the GRIC has decided not to permit the SMF on their land, and ADOT embraces that as a mandate to build on Pecos Road.

As for following the right process according to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), ADOT has worked to make it look like they are following the law when, in fact, they are just trying to justify a decision they made 30 years ago. NEPA actually does not permit ADOT to make any decision on location or even type of solution (freeway, public transportation, other) until after they have completed the environmental impact studies. Those were completed in March 2015 with the issuing of the ROD! Yet a 30-year-old decision is supposed to be “according to the NEPA process.”

So why is ADOT going to the effort to spin this tale? Fear! They are very well aware of the bases of the lawsuit filed against them. The lawsuit is solid, ADOT’s claims are anything but. So ADOT is starting a subtle campaign against the claims of the lawsuit. Although public opinion and money should not matter, ADOT is throwing everything they have into the mix because they are afraid. They should be afraid! The laws are unquestionably on the side of PARC et al in this lawsuit!

Latest update from our attorney

PARC is pleased to have Howard Shanker as our attorney. Although things tend to move slowly in the courts, Howard will try to provide us with a weekly update on what is going on, and we will be posting that to the PARC Facebook group. (www.facebook.com/groups/PARC.AZ/)

Below is the first such update:

There are really two things going on simultaneously. First, the Plaintiff group filed, in part, a Complaint in Federal Court against the FHWA/ADOT on or about May 19, 2015. The Pleadings were served on defendants on that same day. Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the United States has to file a Responsive Pleading/Answer within 60 days after service. Rule 12(a)(2), Fed R. Civ. P. That means that we can likely expect to hear from the federal defendants on or about July 20, 2015. The State is technically required to file an Answer/Responsive Pleading with 21 days of service, or on or about June 9, 2015. This is how the case in chief will proceed. Once responses are filed, we will likely agree to a scheduling order for the filing of dispositive motions. FHWA/ADOT will also be producing the approximately 12,000 page administrative record which will generally provide the factual basis for the claims. In other words, the case is moving forward but there will be times where there is not much to report.Second, we filed an amended Motion for a Preliminary Injunction on May 26, 2015. This Motion essentially asks the Court to stop FHWA/ADOT from doing anything in furtherance of the freeway project until the case can be heard on the merits (see above). Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, Defendants generally have 14 days from the date of service (on or about June 9, 2015) to respond to this Motion. After we receive the responses, we will have 7 days to file a Reply. See, LRCiv 7.2. Generally, sometime after the briefing has been concluded, the Court will order oral argument on the Motion/Briefs.The standard for granting a preliminary injunction motion is different from that required to prevail on the merits. In other words, while we believe that we should prevail on the Motion for Preliminary Injunction, even if the Court does not grant the Motion, the case still goes forward.While attorneys cannot guarantee the outcome of any disputed matter, we believe that we have a very strong case going forward.

eNewsletter – published May 17, 2015

Lawsuit to be filed Tuesday!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015 will be a historic day for Ahwatukee! The challenge to the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will be official! A lawsuit will be filed in Federal District Court in Phoenix against the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) by the following coalition representing approximately 50,000 Arizonans:

Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC)

Foothills Club West Community Association

Foothills Community Association

Calabrea Community Association

Lakewood Community Association

Sierra Club – Grand Canyon (Arizona) Chapter

Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC)

Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE)

Don’t Waste Arizona (DWAZ)

The groups are also asking for a temporary restraining order to prevent ADOT from undertaking any further work on the SMF pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit charges, among other things, that FHWA and ADOT:

Misused the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process trying to rationalize a decision made 30 years ago;

Failed to make a special effort to preserve the natural beauty of a public park;

Refused to consider impacts associated with transportation of hazardous materials;

Failed to adequately consider the impacts on ground water resources.

So many people came forward to tell their stories that we could not use them all for affidavits. Thanks to all of you for being so willing to help our case.

Public Meeting to be held Wednesday

On Wednesday, May 20, 2015, at 7:00pm PARC will host a public meeting to discuss the lawsuit just filed and to answer questions. The meeting will be held at the Desert Foothills United Methodist Church, 2156 E. Liberty Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85048.Up-to-date information is always available on the PARC website at protectAZchildren.org, where one can also find links for donating by credit card. Of course, checks are always welcome too. Send to: PARC, PO Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455.

For those on Facebook, answers to questions and lively discussions can be found at the PARC Facebook group page at facebook.com/groups/PARC.AZ.

Save the wells that feed the south Ahwatukee lakes!

by Dr. Pat Lawlis, President of PARC

This is the fifth in a series of discussions on seven areas of concerns with the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF).

To begin the series, I discussed the fact that Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children’s (PARC’s) chances of winning in court are extremely good because the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) did a poor job studying the impacts of the SMF. For example, ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are complicit in:

Distortion of purpose and need for the SMF

Air pollution

Negative health effects – especially for children

Destruction of wells

Danger from hazardous materials

Desecration of South Mountain

Destruction of quality of life (noise, crime facilitation, home values)

In previous installments, I discussed the first three specific areas of concern with the SMF. This discussion will be about the fourth topic – destruction of wells.

Much of the character of Ahwatukee is dependent on lakes. The lakes that have already been drained in the defunct Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Club remind us of why we do not want any more lakes to disappear! Lakes are a soothing part of the landscape that encourage wildlife and support our way of life. They are worth fighting for, and I commend Save the Lakes for their work in this regard.

Other Ahwatukee lakes are now threatened by the SMF. Lakewood stands to lose its identity without its lakes, and both the Foothills and Club West Golf Courses would cease to exist without their lakes. Yet the wells that feed these lakes would be destroyed by the SMF.

ADOT has apparently recognized that the opposition from many Ahwatukee residents who depend on the lakes poses a real threat to their SMF plan. Although the Lakewood wells are in the right-of-way for the SMF, ADOT has informed the Lakewood Community Association that they may be able to ” . . . move the well controls and associated piping to outside of the right-of-way” to save the Lakewood wells. Of course, ADOT has also said, “Such an analysis would be performed later in the design process.” In other words, they have given hope to Lakewood residents while they have also provided themselves with an easy excuse in the likely event that their idea does not work.

Early on, ADOT also said they would try to save the golf course well until it was pointed out to them that the well sits in the middle of the SMF right-of-way. You have probably seen it on the north side of Pecos Road just west of 24th Street. Now, ADOT has informed the Foothills Community Association that they will drill a new well to replace the one that they would destroy. Interestingly, however, in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, ADOT stated that ” . . . finding a suitable location for a new well in this area may be difficult.” In fact, the Foothills Community Association already tried to drill two new wells for their golf course, and both efforts resulted in dry wells.

I have never seen a more blatant attempt to “divide and conquer.” ADOT is just trying to get the homeowners to reverse their opposition to the freeway. It is an unstated compliment to PARC that ADOT realizes the citizen-opposition to the SMF is a potent threat. They are making promises that they know cannot be fulfilled.

ADOT just cares about making promises that will get residents off their back right now. They know these are empty promises. If construction on the freeway were to start, it would be too late to save the wells and the lakes. ADOT could just say, “Sorry, we couldn’t save the wells” and leave the residents to the consequences.

City water would be the only remaining water source at a prohibitive cost. Two more Gee golf courses would vanish, giving rise to new threats for additional development. Lakewood lakes would dry up to the doom and gloom of its residents. Even if funding for city water was available, how long do you think that could last? Within a few years, given the current extended drought conditions and the promise that it will only get worse, the city will probably continue to raise water rates and, at the same time, severely cut the water it makes available for such “landscaping.”

Now is the time to fight ADOT’s plan to destroy the remainder of Ahwatukee’s lakes. PARC’s lawsuit has been filed, and PARC needs the continuing support of those who care about the future of this community.

eNewsletter – published April 25, 2015

Why isn’t the lawsuit filed yet?

Please have patience. We all want this lawsuit to be filed as soon as possible. It is in everyone’s best interest, however, for it to be well thought out and thorough. PARC’s attorney Howard Shanker has already produced excellent drafts, but drafts are not final documents. We need to be sure the temporary restraining order (TRO) is done properly so that all activity related to the SMF is stopped immediately. Many affidavits will go in with the TRO because so many people have stepped forward to tell their stories.

We are now expecting the big announcement to be early in May. At that time, PARC will also announce a public meeting where we can discuss the specifics of the lawsuit and answer any questions the public may have.

Fundraising

We have begun to have inquiries about how much we have raised and what we are doing with the money. These are legitimate questions, so we have prepared a space in the middle of our main webpage to address fundraising issues. A thermometer graphic will indicate where our fundraising currently stands at any particular time. A link underneath called “Click for details >” will go to a detailed discussion about PARC and funding. For easy reference, this information is also presented below:PARC was established as a grass roots non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in 2006. What appeared to be an imminent threat from ADOT to pursue the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) project did not materialize at that time. Instead, the push for the SMF faded into the background. ADOT may have thought that PARC would go away in time. The SMF threat reappeared in 2013 in the form of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). PARC then became heavily engaged in the freeway proposal process, as defined in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Copies of PARC’s responses to the DEIS as well as the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) released in 2014 are available on this web site. Of course, PARC’s administrative actions did not stop ADOT from pursuing the SMF, but they did prepare PARC for the lawsuit that would be required to stop the SMF project for good.PARC faced two major challenges in pursuing its desire to stop the SMF:

finding the right professionals who would be able to accomplish the work that had to be done

the experts with the right credentials who could review ADOT’s documents and provide pertinent documentation to the attorney

the attorney with the right credentials who could direct the collection of necessary information throughout the NEPA process and then put together and execute a winning lawsuit

collecting the funding to finance the lawsuit to stop the SMF

PARC was fortunate to have a very experienced and well-respected NEPA attorney available and interested from the very beginning. As a resident of Ahwatukee, NEPA attorney Howard Shanker was very familiar with the threat of the SMF and very interested in stopping it. Howard was also able to assist in finding and bringing in experts with the right credentials when they were needed.

PARC knew from the outset that stopping the SMF would be expensive. It would require the professional services of an attorney and a number of experts. The advantage PARC had was that it was a 501(c)(3) organization that could serve to bring together any number of organizations and individuals to pool their resources to fight the SMF while making all donations to the cause tax deductible. An additional benefit for PARC is that much of the work done by both its attorney and its experts has been done pro bono, substantially lessening the required funding.

A large portion of PARC’s funding comes from HOAs, specifically Calabrea, Club West, Foothills, and Lakewood. Each of these HOAs has substantial concerns about the SMF, but the concerns are different for each HOA. By pooling funding together through PARC, each of these HOAs can get their concerns addressed in PARC’s legal action. Most of this HOA funding has been in the range of $5-10 per household.

Many individuals also realize that, through PARC, they can play an important role in fighting the SMF. They donate to PARC, keeping in mind how destructive the SMF would be to their homes and families as well as to their quality of life. While their children’s health and their quality of life cannot be measured in dollars, and the losses they would experience in home values are hard to estimate, most donors feel that generous donations are appropriate.

PARC has very low overhead because its Board members, all of whom are volunteers, pay for almost all administrative expenses. For example, they rent meeting rooms as necessary and pay the yearly fees for website names. PARC’s primary advertising comes from the brochures distributed to homes and at events. Those brochures are all printed on volunteers’ printers, using paper and ink they pay for themselves (ink is very expensive!). One administrative cost PARC has is it pays a webmaster a modest amount each month to keep the website up to date and to format newsletters. Of course, there is also an administrative fee on all credit card donations, no matter whether they come through authorize.net or GoFundMe. Otherwise, all funds received go directly to PARC work on the lawsuit.

Because of the fact that PARC has used its limited funding so sparingly, it has been able to successfully engage in fighting the SMF with a relatively small budget. We now anticipate that we will be able to successfully complete our lawsuit for a good bit less than the $500,000 we originally anticipated. We still have a long way to go, however, so continued funding is necessary. The funding has been and will continue to be used wisely until the lawsuit is settled!

ADOT proposes to poison our children!
by Dr. Pat Lawlis, President of PARC

This is the fourth in a series of discussions on seven areas of concerns with the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF).

To begin the series, I discussed the fact that Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children’s (PARC’s) chances of winning in court are extremely good because the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) did a poor job studying the impacts of the SMF. For example, ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are complicit in:

Distortion of purpose and need for the SMF

Air pollution

Negative health effects – especially for children

Destruction of wells

Danger from hazardous materials

Desecration of South Mountain

Destruction of quality of life (noise, crime facilitation, home values)

In my second editorial, I began the discussions of each of the specific areas of concern with the SMF with the topic of distortion of purpose and need for the SMF. My third editorial was about air pollution. This discussion will be about the third topic, negative health effects – especially for children.

To quote the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “People exposed to toxic air pollutants at sufficient concentrations and durations may have an increased chance of getting cancer or experiencing other serious health effects. These health effects can include damage to the immune system, as well as neurological, reproductive (e.g., reduced fertility), developmental, respiratory and other health problems.”

The EPA further states, “exposures occurring during early childhood are assigned ‘age-dependent adjustment factors’ which adjust the ‘potency’ of the chemical for lifetime cancer risk as such:”

Before 2 years of age, a 10-fold adjustment

Between 2 and 15 years of age, a 3-fold adjustment

In my last editorial, I showed how the air pollution in Ahwatukee would increase to unacceptable levels if the SMF were to be built. As stated above, the EPA recognizes how this type of increase in air pollution is a particular threat to children.

Experts also agree that our children are at high risk for negative health effects from the SMF. Numerous studies have documented the role of traffic related pollution in respiratory health.

One of PARC’s experts, Dr. George Thurston, a full Professor at the New York University School of Medicine in the Department of Environmental Medicine, has published extensively and is a recognized expert in the area of human health effects of inhaled air pollutants. With respect to the SMF, Dr. Thurston has specifically indicated that children attending schools within ½ mile of the freeway would be at high risk of developing asthma or making it worse and experiencing retarded respiratory development and reduced lung function. Over 14,000 students are currently enrolled in 17 such schools, and 10 of these schools are in Ahwatukee.

Dr. Thurston has also stated that for adults, particularly seniors, exposure to air pollution from freeway traffic has been linked to heart attack, coronary artery disease, and increased risk of premature death.

ADOT has failed to address adequately the public health risks associated with the SMF project. If the SMF were to be built, our children would pay the highest price. PARC will file a lawsuit against ADOT and the FHWA very soon to protect Ahwatukee – especially our children.

The next article will discuss the wells that would be destroyed during freeway construction.

eNewsletter – published April 09, 2015

Lawsuit to be filed soon!As you probably know by now, ADOT released the Record of Decision (ROD) for the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) on March 10, 2015. As expected, the decision is to build the SMF from the intersection with the I-10 and the Loop 202 San Tan Freeway, west along Pecos Road, cutting northwest through 3 ridges of South Mountain, then turning north and meeting the I-10 west at 59th Avenue.We have waited many years to get to this point where a ROD has been issued for the SMF. Now, we can finally prepare to take ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to court and stop this poor excuse for a freeway once and for all!PARC’s attorney Howard Shanker is immersed in the preparation of our lawsuit right now. His main challenge is that PARC’s experts have identified so many issues with this proposed freeway and have produced so much supporting documentation that it is tedious boiling it all down and organizing it properly for a court filing!

Howard is planning to file the suit in court just as soon as it is ready. Look for a big announcement around the end of April or beginning of May. At that time, PARC will also announce a public meeting where we can discuss the specifics of the lawsuit and answer any questions the public may have.

IMPORTANT – If you:
(1) use Pecos Road for bicycling and/or hike/bike/recreate/study in the area of South Mountain that would be impacted by the freeway;
(2) live within one-half mile of the proposed freeway and have children, and/or sick/elderly people in your home;
(3) have children that go to school within one-half mile of the freeway; or
(4) live just outside the “take” zone so that you are stuck living right next to the freeway, please send PARC an email right away at parcthesmf@protectazchildren.org. Please include some description of how the freeway will impact you with regard to any of the above in your email. Also include your contact information so that PARC or their legal counsel can contact you via telephone or email. All responses will be kept confidential unless/until you let PARC know otherwise. Thank you.

March 28th event at Nabers a rocking success!

We were unable to count the number of people who came to Nabers for our concert fundraiser because there were so many! PARC supporters filled the place while 6 bands (some adults, mostly youngsters) of Music Maker Workshops played. It was the largest lunch crowd Nabers had ever had, and the kitchen had trouble keeping up with the orders!

Not only did everyone seem to have a great time, but it was also a very successful fundraiser for PARC. All told, including some people who went home and donated online that day, PARC raised $5000!

Karla Rozum wins painting in Silent Auction!Included in the Nabers fundraiser was the final bidding on the Silent Auction for Rich Fischer’s painting of South Mountain. The highest bid of $751 came from Karla Rozum via text message, so PARC delivered the painting to her the next day. She was thrilled to have this beautiful painting of the mountain she loves to hike!

Down to the wire in doing your taxes?

Help yourself and PARC. Print the H&R Block flyer (miniature seen here) on the PARC web site (under Archived Info in the right hand margin), take it to your local H&R Block office, and have them do your taxes for you. Alternatively, copy the ID number 40010001081108 and take this newsletter with you. H&R Block will do your taxes and donate $20 to PARC.

Air pollution – for better or for worse?
by Dr. Pat Lawlis, President of PARC

This is the third in a series of discussions on seven areas of concern with the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF). These articles are also being submitted to the Ahwatukee Foothills News as guest editorials.

To begin the series, I discussed the fact that Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children’s (PARC’s) chances of winning in court are extremely good because the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) did a poor job studying the impacts of the SMF. For example, ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are complicit in:

Distortion of purpose and need for the SMF

Air pollution

Negative health effects – especially for children

Destruction of wells

Danger from hazardous materials

Desecration of South Mountain

Destruction of quality of life (noise, crime facilitation, home values)

In my second editorial, I began the discussions of each of the specific areas of issues with the SMF by discussing the distortion of purpose and need for the SMF. This discussion will be about the second topic, air pollution.

Many different pollutants affect air quality. In the Valley of the Sun, particulate matter (dust) is a major problem in addition to ozone and carbon monoxide. Another class of pollutants of particular concern are called mobile source air toxics (MSATs) – compounds emitted from highway vehicles – and these include formaldehyde, benzene, a bunch of compounds I cannot pronounce, and diesel particulate matter.

Diesel particulate matter is a significant concern for the SMF. About 5000 trucks cross the border at Nogales daily after filling their tanks with high sulfur content diesel fuel – available in Mexico but not in the U.S. These trucks could easily reach the SMF before refueling, so they would be spewing a high concentration of diesel particulate matter into the air near Ahwatukee. Although this type of highly concentrated pollution would have a significant effect on air quality, ADOT does not even consider it as a part of their air quality models.

ADOT does not admit that the SMF would be a truck bypass. In spite of much public outcry about the truck bypass, ADOT continues to insist that the SMF would have a “normal” distribution of vehicles – 10% would be trucks. Even if we were to use ADOT’s reasoning, the SMF would be filled to capacity within a short time. About 135,000 vehicles per day would use the SMF, and 13,500 of them would be trucks. Note how this differs from ADOT’s implication (through the video on their website) that the traffic on the SMF would be very sparse, with no trucks at all!

If we consider the SMF as a truck bypass, it is not unreasonable to expect more like 20% of vehicles to be trucks, or close to 30,000 trucks per day! Just imagine the pollution coming from all these diesel trucks!

ADOT has developed a narrative that makes it sound like all the above-mentioned air pollutants are decreasing at such a rate throughout the valley that no freeway could possibly make them worse. They have used models to “prove” this. While I do not doubt that these models are valid when used properly with appropriate input data, ADOT is not using them properly. As the old saying about computers goes, “garbage in, garbage out!”

ADOT has avoided studying air quality in Ahwatukee. They have given no indication that they know how the South Mountain “air shed” affects wind currents or air pollutants throughout Ahwatukee. With a prevailing wind that blows air pollutants from the south right up against South Mountain, it would be nice to have information about the present air quality in various locations in Ahwatukee, starting with locations close to the mountain and working south all the way to Pecos Road.

Yet, without any data about air currents or the present state of air pollution in Ahwatukee, ADOT claims to be able to predict that future air quality would improve in spite of the presence of a freeway through the area. The EPA says ADOT’s predicted decline in pollutants is not likely. As one who has spent a great deal of my professional life dealing with computer modeling and simulation, I reiterate what I said in the first of this series. ADOT has demonstrated an inability to use proper modeling techniques for projecting future conditions.

When modeling the air pollution resulting from the SMF, ADOT has picked inputs for their models from locations throughout the valley that measure air quality. The EPA has found that ADOT tends to be inconsistent in selecting inputs for their models. The EPA report on ADOT’s Environmental Impact Statement indicates that ADOT confuses the overall study area (Maricopa County) with the area directly adjacent to the project corridor (the proposed freeway corridor). In other words, ADOT picks and chooses air quality inputs for their models from a variety of locations throughout the valley rather than using inputs from locations along the freeway. The result is that their models prove nothing about air quality along the proposed freeway route.

Air pollution is a second area in which PARC is well prepared to contest the SMF in court. Yet I still have five more SMF major problem areas to discuss.

The next article will discuss the negative health effects brought about by the air pollution.

eNewsletter – published March 16, 2015

Donations are tax deductible!

The Record of Decision has been released!

ADOT released the Record of Decision (ROD) for the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) on March 10, 2015. As expected, the decision is to build the SMF from the intersection with the I-10 and the Loop 202 San Tan Freeway, west along Pecos Road, cutting northwest through 3 ridges of South Mountain, then turning north and meeting the I-10 west at 59th Avenue.

Do not despair! This step was the next necessary step in the process outlined in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We have waited many years to get to this point. Now, we can finally prepare to take ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to court and stop this poor excuse for a freeway once and for all!

For more detail on PARC’s grounds for taking ADOT and the FHWA to court, see our article “Legal process against South Mountain Freeway just getting started” in our last newsletter. Also see the second article in this series, “ADOT distorts purpose and need for South Mountain Freeway,” at the end of this newsletter.

March 28th Come Rock and Roll to Stop the Freeway!

Join PARC and friends for a Rock & Roll “Stop the Freeway Bash” on Saturday, March 28th from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm. Have lunch, drinks, and fun while listening to 5 kids rock bands and one adult rock band from the Music Maker Workshops in Ahwatukee. We will ask for a $5 minimum donation at the door, and PARC will receive 20% of the bar/food receipts generated by our group. We will also hold a 50-50 raffle, and we will complete the silent auction bidding for the painting of South Mountain (see “Silent Auction – local artist donates painting of South Mountain for fundraiser” below).

Nabers is located just across the freeway at 825 N 54th St in Chandler between Chandler Blvd and Ray Road. Nabers identifies more with Ahwatukee than with Chandler and belongs to the Ahwatukee Chamber of Commerce. Come support your local business, support your children and the Music Maker Workshops, and support PARC at the same time!

Silent Auction – local artist donates painting of South Mountain for fundraiserLocal artist Rich Fischer has donated a beautiful painting of the west end of South Mountain (the part that would be destroyed by the SMF) to PARC to help us raise funds for our fight against ADOT and the SMF. The painting (with frame) is valued at approximately $600.We will auction it off via a Silent Auction that will run until March 28th at our “Come Rock & Roll to Stop the Freeway” concert at Nabers, where the painting will go to the highest bidder. Winner need not be present.Bids will be updated daily on our Facebook and Twitter accounts until the 28th, and new bids can be made via our Facebook group page, Twitter (@PARCtheSMF), or email to PARCtheSMF@aol.com at any time before the 28th. On the 28th, bids may be texted to 602-692-3303 until 2:00pm when the winner will be announced.

If you wish to examine the painting before entering a bid, use one of the above-mentioned methods of communication to arrange a viewing. We cannot leave such a valuable painting in a public place, but we would be happy to bring it to the parking lot of the Pecos Post Office at a convenient time for viewing.

Still need to do your taxes?

Help yourself and PARC. Print the H&R Block flyer (miniature seen here) on the PARC web site (under Archived Info in the right hand margin) and take it to your local H&R Block office. Alternatively, copy the ID number 40010001081108 and take this newsletter with you. H&R Block will do your taxes and donate $20 to PARC.

Club West residents approve PARC funding through HOAOn March 5th, Club West residents passed a resolution for their HOA to provide up to $25,000 funding for PARC over the next year. That is approximately $10 per household. Thank you Club West residents! Please keep in mind, however, that individual funding is important for PARC as well.Lakewood residents have yet to vote for a resolution that would assess each household $200 for the HOA Board to use toward freeway issues. Some of these funds would go to PARC, as the Lakewood Board is trying to ensure that Lakewood would not lose its lakes. Please be sure to vote, Lakewood residents!Remember, funding is critical for PARC at this important time. Please be as generous as possible!

Donations are tax deductible!

ADOT distorts purpose and need for South Mountain Freeway
by Dr. Pat Lawlis, President of PARC

This is the second in a series of discussions on seven areas of issues with the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF). These articles are also being submitted to the Ahwatukee Foothills News as guest editorials.

To begin the series, I discussed the fact that Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children’s (PARC’s) chances of winning in court are extremely good because of the combination of these seven areas of grounds for suing the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA):

Distortion of purpose and need for the SMF

Air pollution

Negative health effects – especially for children

Destruction of wells

Danger from hazardous materials

Desecration of South Mountain

Destruction of quality of life (noise, crime facilitation, home values)

This time I will concentrate on ADOT’s weak attempts to provide a purpose and need for the SMF. Purpose and need are the first requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the governing law for the development of a new freeway. Without purpose and need, a new freeway cannot be justified.

About 30 years ago, ADOT decided on the need for the SMF and that it would be located from I-10 and the Loop 202 San Tan Freeway down Pecos Road, through three ridges of South Mountain, meeting I-10 again at 59th Avenue. By 1988, ADOT began purchasing land for a right-of-way along 59th Avenue and along Pecos Road. Perhaps this activity could be regarded as “just in case” purchases except that ADOT has never purchased right-of-way land for any other possible SMF alternatives.

The problem is that NEPA prohibits ADOT from deciding the location of a freeway until they have completed an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS is to consider all possible alternatives, including every possible location for the freeway as well as alternative forms of transportation. ADOT published the Final EIS for the SMF in September 2014. Since from the very beginning they had decided on the specifics of the SMF, it was no surprise that the EIS found “reasons” for eliminating all other possible forms of transportation and all other possible locations for a freeway. ADOT’s “reasons” are very flimsy, however, for many of the alternatives, and they will not hold up in court. For example, the current truck bypass – from I-10 at Casa Grande, west on I-8 to Gila Bend, then north on SR 85 to where it intersects with I-10 at Buckeye – was eliminated as a possibility because it is outside of Maricopa County.

Speaking of truck bypasses, it takes no genius to determine that the SMF is intended as one. With a major commercial area around 51st Avenue on the west side of South Mountain, companies like the “tank farm” are chomping at the bit to have a shortcut for their gasoline tanker trucks carrying hazardous materials (hazmats) to the East Valley. The EIS excludes tunneling through South Mountain as an alternative for the SMF because hazmats cannot use freeways with tunnels. The EIS also dismisses out of hand all alternative forms of transportation, such as light rail, that would move people around. Clearly, the SMF is for hauling freight, using hazmats as well as the big rigs of the trucking companies near 51st Avenue. Of course, ADOT has never admitted that the SMF is intended as a truck bypass because Phoenix already has one of them, and it is far outside the metropolitan area as it should be. So ADOT continues with the ruse that the SMF is intended as just another freeway.

ADOT evidently figured that they would have no opposition to their EIS, so they developed a really shoddy document. The Draft EIS that came out in 2013 used census data from 2005, rather than the readily available 2010 data, to try to support traffic projections for 2035. Considering that the traffic projection models they use are only valid for projections of about 2 years into the future, even once they updated the data in the Final EIS, their projections were useless. The ineffectiveness of ADOT’s long-range traffic projections was illustrated by the fact that, using the 2005 data, their projections for 2010 were off by more than 10%. Extrapolating 25 years into the future compounds the error 5 times over, so the traffic projections for 2035 could be off by more than 50%!

Even though ADOT has been able to manipulate one of their modeling techniques (however inappropriately) to try to “justify” a need for a freeway in 2035, they have been unable to get their models to show that the SMF would bring any of the traffic congestion relief that they promised. In their Final EIS, in Table 3-8 Regional Travel Times 2035, on page 3-34, ADOT projects that in 2035, with the SMF in place, a trip from Ahwatukee Foothills Village to Downtown Phoenix (or vice versa) would save a driver one minute! Further, the reader is supposed to be impressed by the total number of minutes that would be saved by 135,000 or so drivers!

Donations are tax deductible!

These are but a few examples of the type of logic ADOT uses in the EIS for the SMF. With all ADOT’s missteps in the EIS regarding purpose and need well documented and well refuted by experts in traffic engineering, demographics, and modeling, PARC is well prepared to contest the SMF in court in the area of purpose and need.

Yet purpose and need is just the first area in which PARC has a winning case. My next installment will discuss the area of air pollution.

eNewsletter – published February 28, 2015

The Club West and Lakewood HOAs are asking homeowners to vote on whether to provide funding for PARC. If you live in one of these areas, don’t forget to add your voice of support for PARC by voting!.

PARC participating in Transportation Day

PARC will once again have a booth at the 15th Annual Transportation Day, Saturday, February 28, 2015 from 9:00am to 1:00pm at God’s Garden Preschool, located at the Horizon Presbyterian Church, 1401 E. Liberty Lane. Organizers anticipate 3000 to 3500 attendees. It is a wonderful opportunity for PARC to talk with parents of youngsters up through age 10 about one form of transportation that would be harmful to Ahwatukee – the South Mountain Freeway.

We appreciate those who have volunteered to help. We will be setting up starting at around 7:00am (just to be sure we get the space we want).

March 28th PARC concert fundraiser at Nabers

Mark your calendar. Nabers, a popular place for music and eats, will be hosting a PARC fundraiser event on Saturday, March 28th from 11:00 to 2:30 – lunchtime. Join us for lunch, drinks, music, fun, and information. The Music Maker Workshop’s rock & roll bands will be playing, and other events are in the planning stages. We will ask for a $5 minimum donation at the door, and PARC will receive 20% of the bar/food receipts generated by our group.

Nabers is located just across the freeway at 825 N 54th St in Chandler between Chandler Blvd and Ray Road. Nabers identifies more with Ahwatukee than with Chandler and belongs to the Ahwatukee Chamber of Commerce.

Legal process against South Mountain Freeway just getting startedThe Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is hoping they have convinced the public that the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) is a “done deal.” While it is true that ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will soon be releasing a Record of Decision (ROD) concerning the SMF – and everyone expects it to say that the SMF will be built – this event marks the beginning of the real work for which Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) has been preparing for years. The ROD is the end of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It marks the beginning, however, of the legal process that is permitted by law.PARC has responded to the Draft EIS released in 2013 and the Final EIS released in 2014 with in-depth expert commentary identifying the unresolved issues brought to light during the EIS process. For the most part, ADOT has not resolved these issues. That means that PARC’s expert comments regarding the unresolved issues provide a basis – a very strong basis – for legal action against building the SMF.With the release of the ROD, PARC anticipates filing an administrative appeal, once again citing the unresolved issues. With ADOT’s expected act of denying the appeal, all administrative avenues available for stopping the SMF will be exhausted, and PARC will finally be free to file a lawsuit against ADOT and the FHWA in federal court. The first action of the suit will be to request a temporary injunction against any building activity on the SMF.PARC is poised to start the legal process that we expect will stop the SMF for good. Pessimists say that suing the government is a useless exercise, but they are wrong. A good body of case law exists on other freeways that have been stopped. In most of these cases, a freeway was stopped just because one important issue was not resolved. PARC has at least seven (7) areas of issues with the SMF, and any one of them can stop this freeway! Putting all these issues together makes PARC’s chances of winning in court extremely good.In future weeks, I will provide an in-depth discussion of each of these seven areas of issues, one at a time, to keep you properly informed. I will also be submitting these discussions to the Ahwatukee Foothills News as guest editorials.

These areas of issues are:

Distortion of purpose and need for the SMF

Air pollution

Negative health effects – especially for children

Destruction of wells

Danger from hazardous materials

Desecration of South Mountain

Destruction of quality of life (noise, crime facilitation, home values)

Donations are tax deductible!

Meanwhile, with an administrative appeal to be prepared and a court case to be filed very soon, if you ever have considered stopping the SMF a worthy cause, now is the time to donate to PARC! Even small donations help because they add up to significant amounts. Larger donations, however, are also necessary for PARC to raise the kind of funds needed to get this court case started and to keep it going. PARC has already spent approximately $175,000 to prepare the responses to the Draft and Final EISs. It will take at least that much again to see this case through court. Surely, most Ahwatukee households can manage $100 right now. Small businesses are donating $500 to $1000. Please be as generous as you can.

eNewsletter – published February 4, 2015

PARC is finalist for Ahwatukee Non-Profit of the Year Award

The Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce is hosting its 16th Annual Chamber Day of Champions on Friday, February 6, 2015. Businesses and individuals will be awarded for 2014: Business of the Year, New Business of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Educational Mentor of the Year, and Non-Profit of the Year. PARC is among the four finalists nominated for the prestigious award of Non-Profit of the Year.

The Bursera Trail hike will be Saturday, February 7th from 9-11 AM. The hike starts and ends at the Bursera Trailhead at 19th Ave and Chandler Blvd.

Enjoy beautiful South Mountain Preserve Park and learn how the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will affect this natural resource and the Ahwatukee community. After hiking approximately 2 miles on the Bursera Trail, you will come to an overlook where you can see the west end of South Mountain and visualize the path of the proposed SMF. A guide will be at that location to describe the proposed freeway route. A Park Ranger will also be available to educate hikers about the park and its many natural wonders.

The return hike will be a return on the Bursera Trail, making the total hike about 4 miles long. It will be a hike of moderate difficulty. For more adventuresome hikers who like long, challenging hikes, one could continue on the Bursera Trail to where it ends at an intersection with the National Trail. Travel east from there to the intersection with the Pyramid Trail, and follow the Pyramid all the way back down to the trailhead (map will be available at the trailhead).

Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) and the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC) are sponsoring this hike. They will have a table at 19th Ave just outside the parking lot to provide hikers with information about the hike and about the SMF. Hike is free. Of course, donations are always welcome! “Save Ahwatukee” T-shirts will be available for the special price of a $10 donation per shirt.

Hike will begin at the Bursera and Pyramid Trailhead at the parking lot where 19th Ave meets Chandler Blvd. If you are coming from farther east in Ahwatukee, follow Chandler Blvd all the way to 19th Ave and turn right into the parking lot. If you are coming from farther west in Ahwatukee or from outside the community, follow Pecos Road to 17th Ave, turn north to Chandler Blvd, then west to 19th Ave. If the parking lot is full, there is a lot of parking on Chandler Blvd.

PARC participating in Transportation DayPARC will once again have a booth at the 15th Annual Transportation Day, Saturday, February 28, 2015 from 9:00am to 1:00pm at God’s Garden Preschool, located at the Horizon Presbyterian Church, 1401 E. Liberty Lane. Organizers anticipate 3000 to 3500 attendees. It is a wonderful opportunity for PARC to talk with parents of youngsters up through age 10 about one form of transportation that would be harmful to Ahwatukee – the South Mountain Freeway.As usual, volunteers are needed to help in the booth. If you are available for set-up, starting no later than 7:30am, or to talk with people as they come by during any part of the 9am to 1pm event, please return this email to PARCtheSMF@aol.com.

ROD still expected by end of the month.The Record of Decision (ROD) on the proposed South Mountain Freeway (SMF) from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is still expected by the end of February 2015. Of course, every expectation is that it will say that the SMF is approved. That will just be the beginning, however, of the legal fight against the freeway.With its extensive examination of the Environmental Impact Statements on the SMF and thorough documentation of the proposed freeway’s shortcomings, PARC is well positioned to challenge the SMF in court.

eNewsletter – published January 21, 2015

ADOT and the FHWA expect ROD in February

The latest ADOT indication is that the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will be out by the end of February 2015. Meanwhile, ADOT is at work trying to purchase more land on the western end of Pecos Road (where the proposed freeway would turn from Pecos Road to go through South Mountain – see photo) and PARC is at work developing strategies for an administrative appeal and a court case to follow.

We expect a flurry of activity regarding the SMF during the first half of 2015. Meanwhile, we are still in need of much funding! Please consider a generous donation! You can donate by credit card online using the button in this newsletter or send a check. Our mailing address is at the bottom of this newsletter. Unfortunately, the issue of the SMF will not be resolved quickly, so it requires continued financing. Thank you for your support!

Mark your calendar for Saturday, February 7th from 9-11 AM. The hike starts and ends at the Bursera Trailhead at 19th Ave and Chandler Blvd.

Enjoy beautiful South Mountain Preserve Park and learn how the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway (SMF) will affect this natural resource and the Ahwatukee community. After hiking approximately 2 miles on the Bursera Trail, you will come to an overlook where you can see the west end of South Mountain and visualize the path of the proposed SMF. A guide will be at that location to describe the proposed freeway route. A Park Ranger will also be available to educate hikers about the park and its many natural wonders.

The return hike will be a return on the Bursera Trail, making the total hike about 4 miles long. It will be a hike of moderate difficulty. For more adventuresome hikers who like long, challenging hikes, one could continue on the Bursera Trail to where it ends at an intersection with the National Trail. Travel east from there to the intersection with the Pyramid Trail, and follow the Pyramid all the way back down to the trailhead (see map).

Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC) and the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC) are sponsoring this hike. They will have a table at 19th Ave just outside the parking lot to provide hikers with information about the hike and about the SMF. Hike is free. Of course, donations are always welcome! “Save Ahwatukee” T-shirts will be available for the special price of a $10 donation per shirt.

Hike will begin at the Bursera and Pyramid Trailhead at the parking lot where 19th Ave meets Chandler Blvd. If you are coming from farther east in Ahwatukee, follow Chandler Blvd all the way to 19th Ave and turn right into the parking lot. If you are coming from farther west in Ahwatukee or from outside the community, follow Pecos Road to 17th Ave, turn north to Chandler Blvd, then west to 19th Ave. If the parking lot is full, there is a lot of parking on Chandler Blvd.

We can still use volunteers to help with the hike. We need one or more volunteers to be at the overlook on the Bursera Trail to explain the freeway route to hikers. Many hikers also enjoy having a “guide” to describe the hike all the way up. Additionally, we need volunteers at the table on 19th Ave. Since those who park in the parking lot will not go past the table, we need one or more volunteers to walk through the parking lot to hand out information.

Sal DiCiccio expresses PARC supportIn a recent discussion of the SMF with PARC President Pat Lawlis and Treasurer Jim Jochim, Sal DiCiccio wanted to be clear that he supports PARC.Sal, our Phoenix City Councilman from District 6, has been criticized as possibly having a conflict of interest over the SMF because of land he owns at Pecos Road and 40th Street. He rejects this criticism, however, because he says his investment in the property in question will work out for him regardless of whether the SMF is built or not. He and his partners in the real estate are planning to attract several businesses to the land, starting with a gas station that will be built soon. In the near future, they are hoping to attract a hospital and one or two additional tenants. Sal emphasizes that the businesses will be built regardless of whether the freeway goes in or not.Sal has a history of supporting PARC. He has donated to PARC, making him a member, and he has brought in some additional funds as well. Several years ago, he also worked very hard to bring about a compromise that would have put the SMF on land further south on the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). Of course, the compromise did not succeed and that solution is no longer viable because the GRIC has voted against having the freeway on its land. With the information provided by PARC’s experts about the wide-ranging effects of air pollution from a freeway to the south of Ahwatukee, it is good for us that the GRIC also sees the SMF as undesirable.In October, when PARC addressed the City Council, it was Sal who requested that the SMF be put on the agenda for a vote at a subsequent meeting. The item did not get to the agenda because of opposition from other council members.Sal continues his opposition to the SMF on Pecos Road and through South Mountain, and he continues his support for PARC.

Planning underway for a Concert March 28th.

Our attorney, Howard Shanker, is in a rock band! Who knew? His band, along with all the Music Makers kids rock bands and possibly other bands are looking to put on a concert tentatively Saturday, March 28th. We need volunteers to coordinate this as a PARC fundraising event. We can probably charge a cover charge and have a silent auction or a 50/50 raffle as a part of the event as well.

eNews – published December 29, 2014

2015 will be a very important year, as PARC plans to take ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to court.

Additional Comments on the FEIS for the Proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway

As you may know, ADOT extended the comment period for the FEIS until December 27th. ADOT failed to address 10 sets of comments on the DEIS in the original FEIS, so ADOT published a Volume IV (Errata) to the FEIS to address the missed comments. As the extended comment period is closing, PARC would like to share with you the additional comments our president sent to ADOT:

The FEIS makes a mockery of public comments on the DEIS. These comments are evidently just annoyances that require excuses and justifications – and that is all the FEIS is, a plethora of excuses and justifications intended to confuse the reader and muddy reality. It begins with unsupportable justifications for needing a freeway and excuses for ruling out many other reasonable locations for potentially building a freeway.A good example of the FEIS attempt at muddying reality is the claim that the Phoenix Police have found no correlation between crime rates and freeways. This claim is easy to refute in Ahwatukee! Police logs of Ahwatukee crime reported in the Ahwatukee Foothills News show the vast majority of crime near the I-10. Also, Phoenix Police officer allocation in Ahwatukee shows a much greater concentration of officers assigned to patrol near the I-10. So the Phoenix Police are quite well aware of the correlation. Perhaps politics will just not allow them to admit it! The FEIS is full of implications that outside organizations support FEIS conclusions, yet these implications are based on a confused version of “reality” that exists only in the FEIS.It is clear that all FEIS excuses are leading to a justification for a major truck bypass in the location of the “preferred alternative.” Such unreasonable excuses and justifications can only be the result of behind-the-scene political and/or financial pressure to choose this unsuitable and unjustifiable location for a freeway whose very existence is difficult to justify.The FEIS is fraught with inadequate analyses and a lack of meaningful preliminary designs making it difficult for a reviewer to determine anything substantial about the freeway plans. It also contains many contradictions, such as the assertion that accumulated small differences are important when they further a case for justifying a freeway but not important when they work against the case.For the most part, the FEIS analyses look at areas outside of Ahwatukee, throwing in an occasional Ahwatukee reference to make it look good – just as most of the FEIS is little more than a feeble attempt to make the “preferred alternative” look good. For example, air quality analyses purposely do not study the Ahwatukee environment in detail. The reason seems quite obvious – the results would not further the case for the freeway.The FEIS for the proposed Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway is a farce. The only reasonable alternative is a “No Build.”

If ADOT and the FHWA continue with this farce, it will go to court where individual criminal activity within government agencies may be uncovered in addition to ADOT and FHWA incompetence.

Patricia K. Lawlis, Ph.D.

President, PARC

PARC anticipates a lawsuit against ADOT and the FHWA next year.Unfortunately, PARC has no expectations that the Record of Decision (ROD) to be released by ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) within the next month or so will respond to reason any more than the FEIS responded to reason. Hence, PARC will forge ahead with appealing the decision to build the South Mountain Freeway. After the appeal is denied, PARC will also file suit in federal court. These actions will both likely happen within the first half of 2015.Meanwhile, our fundraising is not quite keeping up with our expenses from the FEIS response, let alone preparing us for court. We maintain a very low overhead because we are all volunteers and major expenses such as printing costs have been absorbed by some of these volunteers. We do fundraising as we need it, and we need it now.Please consider what you have to lose and donate what you can. Remember that all donations to PARC are tax deductible.

Plans for another Sweetheart Hike February 7th.

Many of you enjoyed our hikes last winter, so we are looking at another Sweetheart Hike in February. We are avoiding having the hike on Valentine’s Day itself since that is a special day for many and it is also part of a holiday weekend in 2015. So the Sweetheart Hike will occur on Saturday, February 7th. It will be jointly sponsored by PARC and the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC), one of our partners in the fight against the freeway.

We are just beginning the planning process, so we are looking for volunteers to help in the planning as well as during the hike. Our preliminary idea is to offer two possible trails to hikers: the Bursera Trail (out and back) or the route up Telegraph Pass and down the Pyramid Trail. We will have T-shirts and bumper stickers available for hikers, with other ideas also a possibility.

Let us know if you want to help with the hike. More specific details will be forthcoming next month.

Goldman Ranch HOA meets to discuss devastation.Goldman Ranch stands to lose about 90% of its homes if the South Mountain Freeway is built. The Goldman Ranch homes are just east of the Mountain Park Community Church that would also be lost to the freeway.In early December, PARC set up a meeting for the Goldman Ranch HOA so the homeowners could discuss their mutual problems and interests. It seems that at least some of the Goldman Ranch leadership is ready to throw in the towel and give up on their homes. They even had the poor judgment to invite ADOT and some real estate sharks to the meeting.The meeting was well attended, and in spite of the hostile environment, PARC gave a good representation of our mission to defeat ADOT. Goldman Ranch HOA will probably not provide financial support to PARC, even though our work will be beneficial to their homeowners whether or not they are forced to sell their homes. Many Goldman Ranch homeowners, however, were very supportive of PARC, and the most important thing is for them to get good information and support. We hope they will also individually support PARC.

eNewsletter – published November 12, 2014

The October 29, 2014 public meeting was very well attended. PARC attorney, Howard Shanker, again talked about the legal process for stopping the SMF, and people asked lots of questions.

As in the first meeting, Howard discussed the legal process that works like this:

ADOT submitted a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for public comment (this occurred last year and PARC submitted a 318-page document to ADOT in response),

ADOT submitted a Final EIS (FEIS) responding to the comments it received on the DEIS (this occurred Sept 26th and the public has until Nov 25th to comment on it – PARC will again submit a comprehensive set of comments, and individuals are encouraged to submit their own comments as well),

ADOT, in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), will submit a Record of Decision (ROD) probably early in 2015 (PARC will counter with an administrative appeal shortly thereafter),

PARC will sue ADOT in Federal District Court (Phoenix), including filing an injunction to prevent any building activity – this process is measured in months or even years,

If District Court ruling is appealed (expected), it will go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (San Francisco) – again this process is measured in months or years.

Some questions and responses from the meeting: Q) What is the GRIC doing about the SMF now?A) The GRIC continues to oppose having the SMF on their land, and they also oppose having it on Pecos Road and going through South Mountain. Many GRIC members are also PARC members, and they are adamant that the freeway must be stopped!Q) Some 200 residents are already receiving letters from ADOT saying their houses will be taken for the freeway. Does this mean the SMF is a “done deal?”A) NO! ADOT has often gotten ahead of itself on the SMF, but nothing will be “final” for a long time. The court process is a very long one!Q) If PARC can already show that ADOT is breaking the law in trying to push this freeway through, why don’t we go to court now?

A) This is a civil suit, not a criminal one (although criminal suits have not been ruled out for later). We must exhaust all administrative options using the process laid out above, according to the governing law (the National Environmental Policy Act – NEPA), before we can file suit in court. Meanwhile, the responses PARC and individuals from the public are making to the DEIS and FEIS provide the basis for our future court suit.

Q) Is PARC getting any support from elected officials?

A) Elected officials have been “cautious” about saying anything. When talking in Ahwatukee, they often express views against the freeway. However, we have yet to see one who is willing to stand up and say to the general public of the Valley of the Sun that they are opposed to the freeway.

Sal DiCiccio’s new aide attended the meeting and expressed Sal’s strong support for PARC and opposition to the freeway. However, he was reminded that Sal has also not said these things anywhere but in Ahwatukee! Sal has also not yet responded to a request for the city to do a traffic study in the area around 32nd St. This would have been very useful in responding to the FEIS. On the positive side, Sal is pushing for the City Council to vote on their support or opposition to the freeway. While the city cannot stop the freeway by itself, it holds a very influential position on the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) – the organization pushing for this freeway.

When should we be worried?It is very important to understand that as we work our way through this NEPA process (described above), there will be times when ADOT will announce that the SMF has been approved and they are ready to start building it!Especially in number 3 above, when ADOT and the FHWA submit a Record of Decision that says they will build the freeway, it will appear that they have won. They will provide a lot of fanfare to try to deflate those who were hoping the SMF would be stopped. But that is just the beginning of PARC’s real fight!After we make our administrative appeal regarding the ROD, still in number 3 above, the appeal will be denied. Once again, it will look like ADOT has won. Not so.It is after all of that, in number 4 above, that ADOT gets stopped in their tracks. They will make no big fanfare when PARC sues them in court – but we will announce it to the world!Then we will all be in for a really long court process. ADOT will undoubtedly try some legal tricks along the way. They could possibly even win the decision coming out of federal district court in Phoenix. Unfortunately, our Arizona judges are not completely divorced from politics.

However, once the case goes to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, we expect to get a fair ruling. We are very confident that we will win this case in the end!

Still time to comment on the FEIS.

There is still time to comment to ADOT on the FEIS. Be sure to say in your comments that you are a member of PARC. Comments can be sent to:

Festival of Lights Kickoff Party.PARC will continue to be active after the FEIS comments are in and even after we take our case against ADOT to court. Our next event will be the Festival of Lights Kickoff Party where PARC will, once again, have a booth. The event will be November 29th at Desert Foothills Park.

Come and visit us, have a discussion, stick around and talk to people who walk by thinking the SMF is a “done deal.” This event will be another important way to inform the public about what we are doing. You would be surprised at how many people still say they know nothing about PARC’s work to oppose the freeway.

The event will also be an important fundraiser, and we will once again have T-shirts available for anyone donating at least $20.

eNewsletter – published October 21, 2014

One more PARC public meeting coming up.On October 29th, PARC will hold its last of two public meetings to update everyone about the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) and discuss what the future holds. PARC decided on two meetings to provide two chances for citizens to attend. To make it as convenient as possible, the first was at the Club West HOA building and the second will be at the Foothills Golf Club.PARC attorney, Howard Shanker will once again provide an update on the legal process and how it will proceed. See the following article for a summary of the first meeting.PARC PUBLIC MEETING:Wednesday, October 297:00 – 8:00 PM

Foothills Golf Club

2201 E Clubhouse Drive

PARC only has until November 25th to provide a response to the FEIS. With this response, PARC will have built a necessary, powerful foundation for a legal challenge to the SMF. PARC expects to win this case in court!

Needless to say, now is an important time for fundraising. The response to the FEIS will be costly. Please consider an online credit card donation or a check. You can either bring a check to the meeting or mail it to PARC at PO Box 50455, Phoenix AZ 85076-0455. Thank you for your continued support.

Summary of the first PARC public meeting.

The October 15th public meeting was well attended. PARC attorney, Howard Shanker, talked about the legal process for stopping the SMF, and people asked lots of questions.

The legal process works like this:

1) ADOT submitted a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for public comment (this occurred last year and PARC submitted a 318-page document to ADOT in response);

2) ADOT submitted a Final EIS (FEIS) responding to the comments it received on the DEIS (the FEIS was released Sept 26th and the public has until Nov 25th to comment on it – PARC will again submit a comprehensive set of comments, and individuals are encouraged to submit their own comments as well);

3) ADOT will submit a Record of Decision (ROD) by the end of the year (PARC will counter with an administrative appeal, probably early in 2015);

4) PARC will sue ADOT in Federal District Court (Phoenix), including filing an injunction to prevent any building activity – this type of legal action is measured in months or even years;

5) If the District Court ruling is appealed (expected), it will go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (San Francisco) – again this type of process is measured in months or years.

The bottom line about the FEIS is that it resolves none of the DEIS concerns. Demographic data was updated from 2005 data to 2010 data, but ADOT drew the same misguided and misleading conclusions from it. As with the DEIS, the FEIS provides flawed analyses, generalities, and heavy-handed justifications.

As an attorney, Howard spoke cautiously about expected court outcomes; he said we have a “very strong case.” Steve Brittle (environmental activist) was enthusiastic as he said PARC’s case is the strongest he has ever seen. Steve has been involved with nearly 100 environmental cases that have gone to court and ended in favorable outcomes.

Some questions and responses: Q) Aren’t there some endangered species living in South Mountain that could stop the building of a highway through there?A) We know of some threatened species but not any endangered ones at this time.Q) What is the GRIC doing about the SMF now?A) The GRIC continues to oppose having the SMF on their land, and they also oppose having it on Pecos Road and going through South Mountain. The GRIC government is pursuing its own legal process against ADOT, but many GRIC members are also PARC members.Q) Some residents are already receiving letters from ADOT saying their houses will be taken for the freeway. Does this mean the SMF is a “done deal?”

A) NO! ADOT has often gotten ahead of itself on the SMF, but nothing will be “final” for a long time.

Q) Shouldn’t the HOAs be helping with funding the PARC legal process?

A) PARC is receiving about 2/3 of its funding from 4 HOAs. That funding works out to about $4 to $5 annually per household. PARC relies on individuals to contribute the remaining 1/3 of its needed funding. Please consider making an online credit card donation.

Phoenix City Council fails to vote on SMF.

As reported in the last newsletter, many PARC members attended the October 1st Phoenix City Council meeting. PARC had 10 members who spoke to the Council along with a supporter from the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC). Councilman Sal DiCiccio of Ahwatukee asked for a vote on the freeway issue at the next formal Council meeting.

At that next Council meeting, on October 15th, several residents of Laveen and other parts of the valley also spoke against the SMF. We expected the SMF to be on the agenda at that meeting, but it did not happen. The Council appears to be stonewalling the issue.

A Council vote provides all of us who are opposed to the freeway with an opportunity to be heard! We may not win a vote, but at least the Council members would be forced to show their true colors about the issue! If you are willing, please contact each Council member and the Mayor with an email or a phone call and let them know you want a vote to be taken on the SMF issue. Also let them know what a bad idea the SMF is! (See our last issue for suggestions.)

eNewsletter – published October 6, 2014

PARC to hold public meetings: Wednesday, October 15 and Wednesday, October 29, 2014. More details below…

Phoenix City Council to vote on SMF! Please join us by contacting Council Members and the Mayor! Details below…

PARC to hold public meetingsPARC will hold two public meetings to update everyone about the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) and discuss what the future holds. PARC decided on two meetings to provide two chances for citizens to attend. To make it as convenient as possible, one will be on the west side and one on the east side of Ahwatukee.PARC attorney, Howard Shanker will provide an update on the legal process and how it will proceed. Now that the FEIS has been released, we will finally have the opportunity to get this proposed freeway issue to court and get it resolved once and for all!PARC PUBLIC MEETINGS:Wednesday, October 157:00 – 8:00 PM

Club West HOA Building

16400 S 14th Ave

(end of 14th Ave next to the park)

Wednesday, October 29

7:00 – 8:00 PM

Foothills Golf Club

2201 E Clubhouse Drive

PARC has until November 25th to provide a response to the FEIS. With this response, PARC will have laid a necessary and powerful foundation for a legal challenge to the SMF. PARC expects to win this case in court!

Needless to say, this is a very important time for fundraising for PARC. The response to the FEIS will be costly. Please consider an online credit card donation or a check. You can either bring a check to one of the meetings or else mail it to PARC at PO Box 50455, Phoenix AZ 85076-0455. Thank you for your continued support.

Phoenix City Council to vote on SMF!

Many PARC members attended the October 1st Phoenix City Council meeting. PARC had 10 members who spoke to the Council along with a supporter from the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC). Only about half of the 3-minute talks fit in before the meeting, so attendees had to wait through the 2-hour meeting before the other half got to speak!

Council members heard excellent presentations from the hearts of the speakers. The council listened! Councilman Sal DiCiccio from Ahwatukee asked for a vote on the freeway to be taken at the next formal Council meeting.

A Council vote provides all of us who are opposed to the freeway with an opportunity to be heard! If you are willing, please contact each Council member and the Mayor with an email or a phone call and let them know what a bad idea the SMF is! Contact information is:

Below are some suggested points you could make (information provided by PARC’s experts). You can talk about just one or two of them or about all of them. Be passionate about this issue!

The SMF fails to improve on traffic congestion anywhere in the Phoenix area,

The SMF would create a dramatic increase in Phoenix truck traffic both on the new SMF truck bypass and on the I-10 in the West Valley,

The SMF would deteriorate air quality beyond allowable limits,

The SMF would bring proven health dangers for students attending schools near the proposed freeway, specifically 15 schools with over 13,000 students,

The SMF would cause unnecessary destruction of both plant and animal habitats within South Mountain and destruction of wilderness areas revered by Phoenix citizens, along with the desecration of land sacred to Native American populations,

The SMF would create significant, new dangers of hazardous material transport within highly populated and highly vulnerable areas,

The SMF would fail to provide any significant benefits for the outrageous cost,

ADOT’s proposal for the SMF shows a complete disregard for the laws that are meant to protect our environment and our citizens.

The City Council may well vote in favor of the SMF because ADOT has been telling everyone what they want to hear – that the freeway would improve traffic congestion and lessen air pollution. Most Phoenix citizens who do not live in Ahwatukee have probably not looked closely enough at those statements to realize that they are not true. That means the Council members may believe their constituents are pro freeway.

Our information blitz may or may not make a difference, but it would be a real coup for PARC if the Council voted against the freeway. The Council cannot stop the freeway, but they have a powerful voice on the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), the organization that is pushing the “need” for the SMF. So the Phoenix representative to MAG could put some pressure on MAG and ADOT to do the right thing. It’s a long shot, but the worst that can happen is that PARC gets a lot of publicity so more people become informed about the dangers of the SMF.

eNewsletter – published September 26, 2014

Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) released by ADOTLast year, ADOT released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the South Mountain Freeway (SMF), and PARC responded with a scathing 318-page document detailing the problems with ADOT’s freeway plan.On Friday, September 26th, ADOT released their Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), and the public has 60 days to respond.PARC has brought back its experts who examined the DEIS to examine the FEIS to determine how ADOT has addressed the problems identified in the DEIS. These experts will detail the problems with the FEIS document. Our collection of expert commentary, along with other supporting documentation, will be sent back to ADOT before their deadline of November 25th.Working with experts doing a thorough investigation, which is required in preparation for taking ADOT to court, is necessary and expensive. Needless to say, financial support is needed now more than ever!

What happens now?After PARC and other members of the public respond to the FEIS, the issue will go back to ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). ADOT and the FHWA will be expected to consider all comments received. Then, ADOT will make a final Record of Decision (ROD) to build or not to build the SMF.ADOT has made clear that they expect the ROD to be made before the end of 2014. Without a doubt, ADOT’s decision will be to build the SMF.Once the ROD is released, it will be time for PARC to take legal action. PARC will get a court injunction to stop any action on building the freeway. The analyses of the DEIS and FEIS will provide the basis for PARC’s strong case as we take ADOT to court.

Reminder – Phoenix City Council meeting October 1st at 2:45pmMany PARC members will be speaking during the Citizen Comments time at the next Phoenix City Council meeting. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 1st in the City Council chambers (round building) at 200 W. Jefferson St. While the official meeting begins at 3:00pm, the Citizen Comments time actually begins at 2:45, and any of the 3-minute talks that are not finished before 3:00 may be delayed until after the official part of the meeting (which could be a couple of hours later). Anyone who can be there for support will be greatly appreciated!

eNewsletter – published August 26, 2014

A Message from the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)Below is an email PARC received from the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (PIRG):

Americans have cut back on driving for nine years in a row. So why does the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) keep projecting rapid increases in driving?The DOT has overestimated how much Americans drive for 61 consecutive forecasts, resulting in billions of dollars being wasted on unneeded new highways, and lagging investment in transit and maintenance.As the DOT updates their next forecast, we need to tell them to get it right.Tell the U.S. Department of Transportation to stop their bad driving forecasts, which lead to unneeded highways and underfunded transit.How wrong has the agency been? The total vehicle miles Americans have driven hasn’t increased by even one percent in any year since 2004. Yet the agency officially forecasts that driving miles will increase much faster than that every year through at least 2030. Why? They don’t say.In the 61 forecasts released by the DOT since 1999, actual driving totals have come far below forecasts every single time. This year’s forecast was bizarrely even wrong about the past, projecting that Americans drove five percent more in 2012 than they actually did.The highway lobby loves it. But transportation tax dollars should match how we actually get around — and right now, that means new rail and bus routes or improved paths for bicycles and pedestrians, and maintaining and repairing our existing roads and bridges. Alternative kinds of travel are growing increasingly popular, especially among the Millennials — who will be the chief users of our future transportation system.

To be fair, the forecasters at the DOT aren’t the only ones to blame. State governments make bad forecasts too, and when the feds aggregate them together, it’s a case of garbage in, garbage out.

Nevertheless, it’s time for the DOT to start making good forecasts, instead of just relying on state projections stuck on cruise control in the past. That way, we can get the investments in 21st century transportation that we need.

If we speak up, I know they’ll listen.

Thanks for your support,

Diane E. Brown

Arizona PIRG Executive Director

PARC and the Festival of Lights

Last year, PARC had a booth at the Festival of Lights Kick-Off Party the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We distributed a lot of information, talked with a lot of people, and sold a lot of “Save Ahwatukee” T-shirts. It was a rousing success, so we’re going to do it again!

This year’s party will be on Saturday, November 29th. The booths are all on Marketplace adjacent to Desert Foothills Park, and the festivities run from 11am until 7pm. We will have a 10′ X 10′ booth, with setup starting around 7am.

Once again, we are looking for volunteers to help in the booth. We will have a lot of information in the booth and a PARC officer will also be in the booth at all times to help answer questions. We would like to have 2
volunteers there at all times as well to help with the crowd that we expect to visit us. This year, even more than last year, we expect a lot of interest in our information. At the time of the event, it will be clear to almost everyone that ADOT is ready to start building the South Mountain Freeway and PARC is the only force standing in its way.

eNewsletter – published August 02, 2014

PARC preparing for FEIS releaseFirst, ADOT said the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) would be out in February. Then, they received 8000 comments on the Draft EIS (DEIS), including PARC’s 318 page report and the EPA’s severe criticism of their method for determining air quality. These comments made ADOT revise their estimated time of release of the FEIS to late July or early August. Now, they have delayed the release again until “mid to late September.” They still appear to be determined to have a decision before the end of the year.PARC is ready to gear up again as soon as the FEIS is released. Even with all the time ADOT is taking supposedly to respond to the DEIS comments, it is impossible for all the problems with the Pecos Road alignment to be mitigated. Of course, PARC expects the FEIS to contain a lot of “baloney” with severe spin to try to convince readers that ADOT has everything under control. Nothing, however, will get by our experts who will once again review the document. We will have 60 days to respond after the FEIS is released, and we should have no trouble meeting that deadline.PARC fully expects that ADOT will respond to our FEIS comments by indicating that our concerns will be mitigated. After the expected Record of Decision (ROD) – that the SMF will be built in spite of continued substantial objections – PARC will take this issue to court. PARC’s comments on the FEIS will provide the legal grounds for our lawsuit.Stay tuned. PARC really needs your continued support – both moral and financial. The legal steps will undoubtedly take many months, and they will be very expensive.

Council visit set for OctoberPARC has talked about making presentations at a Phoenix City Council meeting in September. Because of conflicts, we have gone just a wee bit past September to Wednesday, October 1st. PARC has a good set of presentations already developed and a good list of potential presenters. We will revisit the presentations before the meeting to be sure they are appropriate and that all presenters are able to attend. The FEIS will probably be out by then.The Council meets on Wednesdays at 3:00 PM. Citizen comments are heard starting 15 minutes before and, if necessary, immediately after the meeting. If you are available at that time of day and you would like to be a presenter, PARC would be happy to have you make a 3 minute presentation. You may develop your own or we will develop new presentations as necessary.If you want to attend the Council meeting for support but you do not want to be a presenter, we will be delighted to have your show of support! The Council meets at 200 W Jefferson St.

eNewsletter – published May 27, 2014

City Council visit on hold until fall

We had hoped to put together a coordinated set of presentations for the Phoenix City Council before they went on their summer recess. We ran out of time to get it all properly coordinated, however, so we are putting it on hold until the Council returns in the fall. By that time, we may have a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) to comment on. It will also be closer to elections, so the Mayor and Council members may be more apt to listen! Meanwhile, we have a good set of presentations already prepared, and we have time to work on more. We can also put together a good list of potential presenters.

The City Council usually meets on Wednesday afternoons at 1:30 PM. This was one of the problems we had in trying to coordinate with those who volunteered to be presenters. It is at a very difficult time for many to be able to attend. If you are one of those whose schedule is flexible enough to be able to attend a Council meeting and you are interested in being a presenter, please let us know. You can use return email or you can post to our ongoing conversation on our Facebook page. We want to be sure we can be ready to roll as soon as the Council returns to session this fall.

If you want to attend the Council meeting for support but you do not want to be a presenter, we will be delighted to have your show of support! It will not be necessary for you to let us know that you will be attending ahead of time. Just keep reading your newsletters. We will announce our planned visit to the Council there. We will also announce it on our Facebook page.

PARC participating in the Silent Auction for the Festival of Lights May 31stThe Festival of Lights (FOL) will be holding their annual Wine & Beer Tasting Festival & Charity Silent Auction on Saturday, May 31, 2014, from 7 to 10 PM at the Foothills Golf Club. Their silent auction is one of their big fundraisers for the year, and it is also a good opportunity for an organization like ours to get visibility.PARC has put together a nice Wine & T-shirt Basket that we have donated to the FOL for their silent auction. If you have an opportunity to attend the event (it costs $40 or $50, depending on where you get your ticket), please look for our basket. You won’t be disappointed by the event. In addition to the silent auction, the evening will feature up to 50 different beers and wines with appetizers from a dozen local restaurants. There will also be a live band. For more information, check out www.folaz.org.

eNewsletter – published April 11, 2014

ADOT is persistentADOT continues to say they will produce the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) this summer. Jim Jochim, PARC Treasurer, makes clear in an article in the Ahwatukee Foothills News on April 6th, that ADOT probably cannot reach that goal if they take the more than 8000 public comments they received seriously. It would take a substantial amount of time for ADOT to analyze and properly respond to these public comments, including more than 300 pages of PARC comments. If ADOT chooses to do a “quick and dirty” response to all these comments, that is their prerogative. Unresponsiveness will just give PARC more ammunition for when we take ADOT to court.

PARC preparing to take our case to the Phoenix City CouncilAfter a flurry of outdoor events through the winter months, PARC will take to mostly indoor activities now. Last year, we spent some effort taking our case to the governing boards for our school districts, and we succeeded in getting support from both the Kyrene and Tempe Union districts for a “no build” on the freeway. Now we have a more daunting challenge – trying to get support from our Phoenix City Council.It seems that Mayor Greg Stanton and our City Council are content with playing the politics of taking no stance on important issues like the SMF. Rather than seeking information on what the SMF would do TO as well as FOR the city, they are content with letting the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and ADOT run the show – something like the tail wagging the dog. Phoenix has a powerful voice in MAG, and ADOT’s role is to implement the regional transportation plan developed by MAG. Yet our City Council is sitting by and letting MAG run amok with plans that would, among other things, engulf our metropolitan area in LA-like pollution.Our Ahwatukee representative on the City Council, Sal DiCiccio, is a member of PARC, yet he makes no public statements about the SMF. Reports are that he takes a pro-freeway stance to freeway supporters. We know he has a conflict of interest because he owns property at Pecos and 40th Street.Mayor Stanton was once the Ahwatukee representative to the City Council. In that capacity, he made the famous statement that the SMF would be built “over my dead body.” Yet now that he is mayor, he is silent. It seems he is just another politician who does not mean what he says. He just wants to say what will garner him the most support. Well, Mayor Stanton, unless you change your tune, you can no longer count on support from Ahwatukee because your silence has betrayed us! And in so doing, you have betrayed all of Phoenix! While ADOT is lying to everyone about what a great thing this SMF would be for our Valley, you and our City Council are supporting the Great South Mountain Freeway Fraud by your silence!Enough! ADOT continues to say what people want to hear – that the SMF would improve traffic congestion and air pollution. But we know those ADOT promises are lies, and we have exposed them in our well-documented comments to ADOT. No matter. ADOT continues to say those things and people continue to believe them because that is what they want to believe. It is time for PARC to make the case to the City Council and insist that they pay attention to the realities of the proposed SMF:

No traffic congestion relief

Greatly increased truck traffic in the Phoenix area

Increased valley-wide pollution, with Ahwatukee becoming a mini-LA

Over 14,000 children in 10 Ahwatukee schools near the SMF with a significantly increased risk of major health problems

Destruction of 3 ridges of South Mountain, including part of South Mountain Park and Preserve

Significant risk of disastrous hazmat spill in Ahwatukee

Severe increase in crime in Ahwatukee

We can back up each of these points and more, and we think it would be most effective if we make our case in a series of 3-minute talks to Mayor Stanton and the City Council, with each 3-miinute segment presented by a different PARC member.

If you would like to be a part of this presentation series, please let us know (with a return email, a Facebook post, or other). We are currently expecting a visit to the City Council sometime in May or June.

eNewsletter – published March 14, 2014

Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) due this SummerWe have every reason to believe that ADOT wants to put the FEIS out as quickly as they can. Yet they have delayed the document delivery from February to April and now to mid-summer. This is a good indication that they are having difficulty in finding answers to the 8000 responses they got to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) from last year. Yet it also means that they continue trying to find answers – whether they are reasonable or not – to justify their South Mountain Freeway (SMF). It will be interesting to see what kind of new approach they use in the FEIS to try to make the SMF seem like a good idea. Whatever it is, we will be ready for it.Once the FEIS is out, we will be able to definitively refute ADOT’s best ideas – those that supposedly have fixed all the problems previously identified. That will give us not only the ammunition we need to use in court to stop the freeway, but it will also give us the opportunity to examine possibilities for filing fraud charges against ADOT and/or MAG (the Maricopa Association of Governments) for the dishonest way this freeway has been thrust upon the public.Stay tuned. And don’t forget to donate to help us get ready for our next expensive step – reviewing the FEIS! Mail checks to: PARC, PO Box 50455, Phoenix, AZ 85076-0455

Freeway update at public meeting On Wednesday evening, February 19th, PARC provided another of its public updates on the SMF at the Club West HOA Club House. The meeting provided a forum for discussing the current status of the freeway process, future PARC funding, and a question and answer session.

Transportation Day at God’s Garden Preschool

PARC had a booth at Transportation Day on Saturday, February 22nd. It was a beautiful day and a great event, with an estimated 3000 to 4000 people in attendance. We continue to find many people who are unaware of the SMF or who think it is a “done deal”, so many new people were informed that day. The preschool raised about $20,000 at the event, and we also raised $300 for PARC.

Walk to Save Pecos Road

It started out as a rainy day in the early morning of Saturday, March 1st. By the time of the walk, however, it was just a cloudy, nice day and the walk went off without a hitch. The attendance was not what we had hoped for (why are Arizonans so afraid of the rain?), but we still had a great group of volunteers and walkers who showed up along with some who just stopped by to donate to Save Pecos Road.

Many thanks to the Arizona Senior Olympics (ASO) for taking care of all the logistics of the event, including getting Pecos Road closed to traffic. The ASO had a great event and so did PARC. We made $700 that morning.

More ways to spread the word about PARC and the SMF

We are working on even more ways to get the word out about the SMF. Recently, you may have seen PARC information in the Money Mailer.

eNewsletter – published Feb. 13, 2014

Sweetheart Hike on Saturday, February 9th stressed love of South Mountain

Over 70 people participated in the Sweetheart Hike that PARC organized for the love of the mountain. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the hike. PARC shuttle drivers made sure everyone got to the trailheads and then back to their cars after the hike.

PARC’s objectives were to raise some funds and spread the word about the need to save South Mountain from the ill effects of the freeway. We collected over $1300 from hike donations. Not only did the Ahwatukee Foothills News provide front-page coverage before the hike, but ABC Channel 15 had some nice coverage on their news the evening of the hike as well.

PARC to update public about freeway fight at Club West HOA Club HouseOn Wednesday evening, February 19th at 7:00pm in the Club West HOA Club House at 16400 S. 14th Ave., PARC will provide another of their updates to the public regarding the current status of freeway issues. We covered much of this in our last newsletter, but the public meeting gives everyone a chance to see and hear from those in PARC who are engaged in the freeway fight. It also provides a forum for questions and answers.Although no one likes to have to talk about fundraising, it is an important aspect of winning our fight against ADOT. At the meeting, we will discuss the importance of HOA donations as well as individual donations. No one needs to donate a lot as long as a lot donate.

We provided details about this event in our Save South Mountain newsletter distributed January 13th. You can find a copy of this newsletter on PARC’s website.

Don’t forget to get sponsors for the walk. Sponsors can either pledge a certain amount per kilometer or just a lump sum. All sponsor funds raised will go to PARC, so sponsor checks should be made out to PARC.

Over 50 people showed up to hike the Bursera Trail on South Mountain’s Main Ridge South to see where the freeway would destroy the two main South Mountain ridges. After a 2 mile hike up the trail, we came to an overlook where we could see the ends of both the Main Ridge North and the Main Ridge South. The north ridge would be cut through by the South Mountain Freeway 220′ deep and wide enough for 8 lanes of traffic plus a median, shoulders, and ditches to catch falling rocks. The south ridge would get a 190′ deep cut with the same width. The third ridge that would be cut is the Alta Ridge, which would get a 70′ cut, but it was not visible on this hike.

The Sweetheart Hike – for the Love of South Mountain is Saturday, February 8thWith the number of people who came to an informal hike (see above), we expect a good turnout for our much more advertised Sweetheart Hike. See our previous newsletter for more details about this hike.

Freeway update – PARC working for youAlthough you have been hearing about the South Mountain Freeway (SMF) for a long time, it’s time for a current status, complete with a reminder of how we got here.When ADOT released their Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the SMF in April 2013, PARC brought together several experts in various areas covered by the DEIS. These experts examined the document and provided comments on any issues that they saw. They found more problems with ADOT’s DEIS than anyone expected, and that information was detailed in PARC’s 318-page response to the DEIS.Of particular interest is that PARC’s traffic engineering experts have determined that the SMF would result in no appreciable improvement in traffic congestion anywhere, including on the I-10 and on arterial streets.Further, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) examined the DEIS and came to the same conclusion as PARC’s air quality experts: ADOT does not know how (or chooses not) to do proper air quality modeling. Hence, EPA gave the DEIS its lowest possible rating – inadequate. Correct modeling shows that air pollution would get worse rather than better, particularly in Ahwatukee and the West Valley.PARC’s expert on the health effects of air pollution determined that children attending schools within ½ mile of the SMF would have inhibited lung growth and development and be at high risk for developing or worsening asthma. Ten Ahwatukee schools with over 14,000 students are within ½ mile of the proposed SMF route.Today, Ahwatukee has virtually no threat from hazardous materials. The SMF would bring many gasoline tankers from the 51st Ave “tank farm” as well as numerous other hazmats carrying sulfuric acid and chlorine gas. These would pose a significant threat in case of an accident on the SMF truck bypass. Even ADOT admits that 10% of the 135,000 vehicles on the SMF every day would be trucks – that’s 13,500 trucks per day. It’s not unreasonable to expect that at least 1000 of these would be hazmats. Sooner or later, this is a recipe for disaster – literally. A chlorine gas spill in Ahwatukee could be fatal for thousands of residents, especially those within 1 to 3 miles of the spill. The DEIS doesn’t even have a plan for how to deal with a hazmat disaster on the SMF.Currently, PARC is waiting for ADOT to respond to the more than 8000 comments they received on their DEIS, including the PARC and EPA comments. ADOT must detail in a final EIS (FEIS) how they propose to fix the problems that were identified. This FEIS is now expected around late July or early August of 2014. Once ADOT releases it, PARC will have this FEIS examined again by the experts to see where ADOT’s response is acceptable and where ADOT continues to fall short.The process of closely examining ADOT’s proposal and requiring all problems to be fixed helps all citizens of the Phoenix metropolitan area. If any freeway problems cannot be mitigated, then the freeway should not be built.PARC expects that ADOT will not be able to mitigate all the problems of the SMF nor will they be able to show a need for the freeway. Hence, PARC is preparing to take ADOT to court to stop the SMF and save Pecos Road and South Mountain. PARC believes that stopping this freeway will be a service to all Phoenix area citizens who have a stake in the health and well being of their community and its natural resources.To complete its mission, however, PARC needs to raise a significant amount of additional money. We already spent $100,000 for expert and legal fees just to review the DEIS, and we estimate we will need at least $500,000 total to see this issue all the way through to a “no build” decision. We must once again pay to have the FEIS reviewed, for it is the findings of the DEIS and FEIS reviews that result in ADOT improving their plans for the SMF. These findings also establish the grounds for suing ADOT in court when their plans continue to be unacceptable. Court and legal fees will comprise the remainder of the estimated total cost.

What if the SMF is resolved soon and/or PARC raises more money than is needed?Some people still hold out hope that the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) will agree to put the SMF on their land. PARC thinks the chances are extremely slim that the GRIC would change their minds and agree to this. Perhaps more importantly, even if the GRIC wanted the SMF on their land, the chances are a lot slimmer yet that ADOT would be interested. ADOT’s interest is in the current process, which is for the SMF to be built on Pecos Road and through South Mountain. ADOT will likely see this proposal through to its final resting place in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.We cannot completely ignore the possibility that we could have a quicker resolution, however, even if the odds are about the same as the odds of winning the lottery. After all, people do win the lottery. Of course, if we could feel confident that someone in PARC would win the lottery, we wouldn’t need to do any fundraising. We would just wait until the lottery was won and ask the winner to fund PARC with what it needs (it should be a very welcome tax write-off). That’s not very realistic, however, and neither is the possibility that PARC won’t need every penny it raises. Nevertheless, let’s look at the process and the funding expectations.PARC is currently experiencing a steady trickle of donations, mostly due to the fact that we have been continuing to have fund-raising events. This rate of donations is allowing us to maintain our web site, to continue to accept credit card donations, to produce this newsletter, and to continue to prepare for our upcoming fight with ADOT.When ADOT puts out their next document, the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), PARC will again need to have it examined by experts, and that process will cost about another $100,000. So do we wait until the FEIS is released before we try to raise that much money? We believe that to wait would be foolish since it would be nice to have some resources we can count on when we need them.Last year, PARC got significant financial help from several HOAs when funding was needed for reviewing the DEIS. These same HOAs are already considering ways that they may be able to assist with the funding for the FEIS review as well. HOA funding is extremely important, but it is not enough by itself. It is the combination of HOA donations and individual donations that will make our work possible. Are you prepared to help?If you want to wait until after the FEIS has been released to donate, we suggest that you start to put money aside now so you can be prepared to donate promptly when the time comes. We need whatever you can afford and as often as you can afford it. $10, $25, $100, more? Weekly, biweekly, monthly? Can you forgo one latte once a week? One evening per month of taking the family out to dinner? Anything else that you could forgo and never miss?Do you have trouble keeping the money you have put aside for a special purpose? How about opening a savings account just for that purpose? Or keeping an envelope in your desk where you slip money as you save it on a regular basis (but don’t tell anyone else where it is and don’t rob it from time to time either)? Then when the money is needed, you will have it! Or – if you don’t really think that saving will work for you – just donate to PARC on a regular basis!Funding the continued review of the SMF documents is critical for your home, the well-being of your family, and the well-being of Ahwatukee as a community. We are counting on you!Oh, and what would happen if PARC really did end up with a surplus? We would have a meeting of all members (that’s everyone who has donated) to decide.

eNewsletter – published Jan. 13, 2014

Mark these dates:

Saturday, January 18th, 9:00am – Informal PARC hike to see where the freeway would cut through South Mountain

Would you like to see where the freeway would destroy South Mountain ridges?

When: Saturday, January 18th, 9:00am

Where: Chandler Blvd at 19th Ave (Chandler dead-ends here)

Why: To see where the freeway would destroy 3 ridges of South Mountain

Amenities: None

Some PARC members will be meeting to hike to the top of the Bursera Trail. From this vantage point, one can see across the top of the west end of South Mountain and see where the freeway is planned to cut through. There is no need to let anyone know if you plan to attend. Just be sure to be there by 9:00. No fees, but also no amenities. Come prepared for a 3.6 mile hike up and down the mountain. It will be moderately strenuous. PARC T-shirts will be available for those who want to donate at that time.

Hike with us – for the Love of South MountainWhen: Saturday, February 8th, 8:00amWhere: Starting at the Telegraph Pass trailhead (Desert Foothills Pkwy & 7th St, north of Chandler Blvd)Parking: Desert Foothills Park (on SW Marketplace, just west of Desert Foothills Pkwy and just south of Chandler Blvd)Shuttle Service: Desert Foothills Park to and from trailheadsWhy: Fundraiser for PARC because we want to save South MountainDonation (get a “Save Ahwatukee” T-shirt):

$20 Individual (1 T-shirt)

$30 Couple (2 T-shirts)

$40 Family (4 T-shirts)

Registration: Prepay donations on our website, include “hike” along with T-shirt size(s) in the description

Amenities: Restrooms – yes; Water – yes; Food – no

If you like to hike, this is for you. Hikers will start at the Telegraph Pass trailhead, then proceed at their own pace and hike their own distance. The main hike will go up the Telegraph Pass trail, follow the National Trail west, and then come down the Pyramid Trail to end at the 19th Ave and Chandler Blvd trailhead. Hikers who wish something a little less strenuous can come back down the Telegraph Pass trail.

Be sure to bring water! Try to be parked at Desert Foothills Park by 7:45am so we can get you to the trailhead for the 8:00 start time.

You will hike at your own risk, but PARC volunteers will be around to provide any assistance needed. We will provide shuttle service and water, and we will not leave anyone on the mountain.

Registration: Pre-registration up to February 26th on-line at seniorgames.org (select event “Walk to Save Pecos”) or register on-site

Fee: $15 for 18 and over, $12 for 10-17 year olds, includes an ASO T-shirt

Entry Requirements:

Each person must register as an individual

Children must be at least 10 years old to participate

Check-in prior to the event is required

Amenities: Restrooms – yes; Water – yes; Food – no

If you like to walk, come and join us to help save Pecos Road. This will be a 5K walk, not a race. It will be at your own pace so you can enjoy the surroundings and contemplate on what Ahwatukee would be like without Pecos Road.

Pecos Road is just as important to the ASO as it is to residents of Ahwatukee. Each year the ASO has biking and running events for senior athletes that use Pecos Road as the venue. There is no more suitable venue in the Phoenix area.

When the ASO asked PARC to join with them in sponsoring an inter-generational (age 10 and up) walking event on Pecos Road, we jumped at the chance. Pecos Road is important to all of us, and what better way to make that point to the community than while raising some funds to fight against replacing Pecos with a freeway.

As co-sponsors of this walking event, all entry fees will go to the ASO, while all sponsor money collected will go to PARC. So it will be very important for PARC if you could get sponsors to donate something for every kilometer you walk. Every little bit helps.

PARC will have a booth at the Pecos Park ‘n’ Ride where participants will be able to talk with us and/or purchase PARC “Save Ahwatukee” T-shirts and “Save South Mountain” bumper stickers. PARC will also be assisting with on-site registration, distribution of water to participants, etc.

On November 20-21,2013, several PARC members demonstrated by carrying signs saying “Freeway Toxic Zone” and handing out “postcards” with information about how and why PARC is fighting the freeway. These demonstrations occurred at Kyrene del Milenio, Kyrene de la Sierra, and Kyrene de la Estrella Elementary Schools as well as Kyrene Akimel A-al Middle School. The postcards were handed to parents as they were dropping their children off at school.

Over and over again, PARC demonstrators heard “Thank you for what you are doing” from parents as they took the postcards telling them how to get more information. We only had an occasional heckler.

Gail Cochran coordinated the demonstrations for PARC, and she was interviewed by Channel 15. PARC president Pat Lawlis was also present, and she was interviewed by Channel 5 and Channel 12. All 3 channels aired a short segment on the demonstrations.

We will press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence!